Q-Day may still be far in the future. That doesn’t stop cautiously optimistic investors from pouring their money into the oh-so-tempting promise of quantum technology, however.
The latest recipient of this confidence is Dutch startup Orange Quantum Systems. The company that builds Quantum chip test equipment has just raised €1.5 million in pre-seed funding to support the emerging industry’s transition from ‘lab to factory’.
There are many challenges in scaling quantum technology. Decoherence, error correction, and qubit quality and consistency are all issues that need to be addressed, not to mention the algorithms, hardware complexity, and power consumption.
Orange Quantum Systems (Orange QS) targets a specific aspect of the quantum supply chain scalability puzzle – the “bottleneck” in efficiently testing quantum computer chips.
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A quantum computer chip serves as the processor for quantum computers. Testing them is a crucial step to ensure their reliability and functionality. Without delving too far down the quantum rabbit hole for nowTesting quantum chips takes weeks in a dedicated cryogenic facility and overseen by highly skilled engineers.
First turnkey quantum chip test solution
Earlier this year, Orange QS launched a complete room-temperature instrument stack that claims to guarantee automation of quantum chip testing, with that automation supported by a set of proprietary software libraries. This is not a new approach to testing computer chips, but performing it for the quantum species requires specific quantum knowledge.
“Quantum chip testing is an expensive, slow, and difficult process because it relies on a high-tech laboratory environment, manual workflows, and PhD-level operators,” explains Dr. Adriaan Rol, Director of Research and Development at Orange QS. “If the quantum computing value chain is to increase the number of high-quality qubits per quantum chip, it needs industrial-grade foundry processes combined with fast test equipment.”
Funds raised will go towards the development of Orange QS’s ‘next generation’ test equipment, which ‘the first turnkey solution optimized for high-speed qubit testing.” In addition to the €1.5 million from QDNL Participations and Cottonwood Technology Fund, the startup has also received a grant from the European Innovation Council’s EIC Accelerator.
Based in Delft, The Netherlands, Orange Quantum Systems was founded in 2020 as a spin-out from TNO (The Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research). Currently it consists of 17 employees and can boast Top consultant with experience in ASML and NXP.