4 Dec

Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology Joins Cross-Atlantic Quantum Collaboration as the Industry Lead

Global academic and industrial leaders from Canada and the United Kingdom are joining forces to create an advanced manufacturing toolkit for quantum sensing and quantum computing.

Oxford Instruments is proud to be the industry lead in the UK Canada Quantum Technology Programme, a cross-Atlantic collaboration with partners across UK & Canada focussed on furthering quantum device fabrication readiness.

This strengthens Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology’s position as a provider of targeted solutions for quantum devices with the capability to deliver unique plasma processing technology for research and scaling up to large wafer sizes and higher volumes. The developments within this project will drive the readiness of the materials processing required for the manufacturing of chips for high performance quantum computers and ultra-sensitive quantum enabled magnetic field sensors. These devices could enable future autonomous vehicles and concealed infrastructure imaging etc.

Funded by Innovate UK-Natural Sciences (UKRI) and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the consortium will address the need to produce robust, reliable, and scalable quantum circuits with a view of enabling their commercial exploitation and large-scale deployment. Oxford Instruments will be working on atomic scale processing solutions for thin films of superconducting metals/metal nitrides and defect centres in diamond.

Dr Ravi Sundaram, Head of Strategic R&D Markets, Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology, commented “Oxford Instruments is delighted to be part of this unique trans-Atlantic consortium. Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology is ideally positioned to help develop the technology and scale it up to the next level with a clear roadmap to plasma processing solutions on 200mm wafers”.

Professor Michel Pioro-Ladrière, professor at the Department of Physics and deputy director of the Institut quantique (IQ), Université de Sherbrooke states “The project offers excellent training prospects. Developing a highly skilled workforce is one of the main challenges in our field. The consortium will help train the scientists and engineers of tomorrow who will accelerate the development of quantum technologies.”

Professor Martin Weides, Head of the Quantum Circuit Group at the University of Glasgow said: ‘This grant is vital to addressing today’s new pressing challenges to increase the technological readiness level of superconducting quantum circuits. Our long-standing collaboration with Oxford Instruments will be continued and strengthened by including novel materials and nanofabrication techniques in the UK’s leading Nanofabrication Cleanroom, the James Watt Nanofabrication Centre. The University of Glasgow’s subsidiary and commercialisation partner Kelvin Nanotechnology will offer access to our nanofabrication portfolio including industrial-grade superconducting processes. We are delighted to advance existing manufacturing toolkits to solve issues faced by the quantum technology start-ups, provider and research institutes in the UK and Canada.’

Oxford Instruments continues to develop and support market-leading nano-fabrication solutions vital to the manufacture of several quantum device platforms including superconducting qubits (ALD, Plasma etch), Diamond NV Centres (Plasma etch, Hard mask deposition), and integrated photonics-based qubits (waveguide etch, single photon detector layers etc.).

To read more about Oxford Instruments’ Quantum capabilities please visit https://plasma.oxinst.com/quantum

To read more about the UK Canada Quantum Technology Programme please visit https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/uk-and-canada-collaborate-to-launch-world-first-programme-of-quantum-technologies-896283559.html

For more information on the UCSB Quantum Foundry please visit https://quantumfoundry.ucsb.edu/

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Issued for and on behalf of Oxford Instruments Plc