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Research project

QuantumSPICE

We are part of the QuantumSPICE consortium – an initiative to build a reliable, sovereign European supply chain for critical superconducting components used in quantum computers.

Motivation

Superconducting circuits are among the most promising platforms for quantum computing, but scaling them up requires solving persistent challenges around qubit coherence, fabrication reproducibility, and industrial manufacturability. A key limiting factor is so-called two-level systems (TLS) in materials and interfaces, which reduce coherence times. Investigating TLS requires cryogenic measurements – for example, spectroscopic characterization of superconducting resonators or qubits.

Today, this kind of research is held back by the cryostats used to perform it. Manual, time-consuming steps – opening and closing vacuum chambers, contacting samples, long cooldown times, complex software routines – mean that current systems cannot deliver characterization at the speed or volume that modern research and manufacturing need. This creates a critical bottleneck between fabricating new materials and processes and getting the feedback needed to improve them.

Approach and key goals

QuantumSPICE brings together industry and academia – an international market leader, an innovative start-up, and excellent university research – to build the foundations for a reliable European supply chain of critical superconducting components. The project combines:

  • research into new material classes, circuit designs, and fabrication processes to improve core performance parameters such as coherence time
  • the development of efficient, high-volume characterization methods for quality assurance and R&D
  • the transfer of these results to an industrial 8″ fabrication line in Germany

What we are doing

Automated, scalable cryogenic characterization of superconducting quantum circuits

Building on our unique magnetic cooling technology and our L-Type Rapid platform, our contribution centers on removing the characterization bottleneck itself:

Temperature correlations

We research how key device parameters, such as qubit relaxation times and the critical current of Josephson junctions, behave across a broad temperature range. Robust correlations allow meaningful characterization already at higher temperatures, giving faster feedback to fabrication.

Standardized measurement routines

We develop robust, efficient characterization routines and implement them in a cryogenic measurement system, enabling reproducible, comparable results with less time and personnel effort.

Throughput and automation

We evaluate and implement hardware improvements – larger sample holders, optical sample recognition, new low-temperature multiplexing solutions – to increase the number of samples measured per cycle and move toward fully automated characterization.

Together, these building blocks let us deliver reliable feedback on all relevant device parameters within hours of fabrication, directly accelerating the research and development of high-coherence qubits.

Supported by

The QuantumSPICE project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR).

German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR)

Contact

Get in touch with our team

From first experiments to scaled-up quantum systems, our team can help you find the right cooling system for your work.

or write to info@kiutra.com