Quandela announces manufacturing site
The company says its new pilot line for high-performance photonic qubit devices will improve manufacturability of the quantum technology and propel it into the industrialisation phase
Quandela, a European quantum computing company, has announced the inauguration of its first manufacturing pilot line for high-performance photonic qubit devices, aiming to accelerate the deployment of error-corrected quantum computers. Following the opening of the company’s first quantum computer factory in June 2023, which it says has enabled the delivery of two quantum computers to industrial customers, this new production site underscores Quandela's commitment to industrial scaling and innovation in the quantum computing sector.
Quandela’s approach to building quantum computers at scale combines integrated photonics technology with semiconductor quantum dot-based devices, serving as both spin qubits and photon generators. The company says this technology is rooted in 20 years of top-class scientific research conducted within French telecom laboratories and the French National Research Institute CNRS. The know-how was transferred to Quandela in 2017, and packaged devices have been commercialised since 2018.
According to the company, the new manufacturing plant combines this extensive know-how with industrial machines and processes to boost the manufacturability and performance of the qubit devices. It is located at The Photovoltaic Institute of Île-de-France (IPVF).
Quandela says that this site is the first manufacturing plant entirely dedicated to such technology worldwide, marking a key milestone in the continued development of its technology. The company adds that the pilot line effectively opens a new phase that will propel this quantum technology into the industrialisation phase and expand its integration into quantum systems for computing, networking, and communication.
For the upcoming two years, Quandela expects the pilot line to produce more than 2000 devices per year. At full capacity, it is projected to reach 10,000 devices per year, with qubit device density increasing to hundreds of devices per mm².
Quandela also highlights its Qubits Identification Tool, a machine which it says permits testing of qubit properties, such as coherence time, at cryogenic temperatures in just a few minutes, selecting the most performant qubits for further processing. By probing the quantum properties of hundreds of nanometre-sized structures and collecting high-volume data while mapping uniformity, this method aims to provide fast feedback to optimise the fabrication process and lead to high yield (from 40 percent to over 70 percent) and low process variation (increased uniformity over thousands of devices on a cm² area).
