University of Toronto Research Sponsorship
About the programme
A 3-year research sponsorship agreement with the University of Toronto — our first university partnership, signed in 2025. The programme pursues the electrical route of Delta's research: electrons in engineered gold layers, with the aim of coherence engineered by topology.
The research team and facilities
The programme is led by Prof. Harry E. Ruda, Stan Meek Chair in Nanotechnology and Director of the University of Toronto's Centre for Nanotechnology. His career spans early theory of electron transport in quantum nanostructures (IBM Postdoctoral Fellowship), II–VI blue-laser semiconductors at 3M, and three decades of research on the fabrication and modelling of quantum functional nanostructures for nanoelectronics and nanophotonics, with 270+ publications in international refereed journals (7,200+ citations, h-index 41), 4 co-authored books and 14 patents. He was one of the founders of a Canadian National Centre of Excellence in Photonics, serves on the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and on government panels in the US and UK, and is Editor-in-Chief of IET Circuits, Devices & Systems.
What the research is investigating
The programme plans to arrange gold in engineered layers — drawing on the special behaviour of gold's surface states, including their ability to host induced superconductivity — and follows a published five-step ladder. The confirmed invention's published title: ‘Novel transducer structures for quantum devices’. Further detail remains confidential while the provisional patent application completes its 18-month confidentiality period.
- 1Near-termEstablish the layer structureProvisional patent filed
- 2Near-termBuild the circuit elements
- 3Mid-termEngineer coherence by topology
- 4Mid-termDemonstrate an addressable topological stateFirst product
- 5Long-termA scalable topological systemThe QIS device
Funding commitment and term
IP rights and licence terms
Delta holds a 100%-owned exclusive global licence over the programme's IP. The university receives a 1.5% royalty on net sales — Delta retains 98.5%.
Progress and published results
The University of Toronto formally confirmed the programme's first invention, ‘Novel transducer structures for quantum devices’, and a provisional patent application was filed (RNS, May 2026). During the 18-month confidentiality window, the university and Delta are collaborating on potential follow-on patent applications within the filed theme.