Launch of Q‑PLANET

New Euro­pean Pilot Line for the Indus­tria­liza­ti­on of neu­tral-atom-based Quan­tum Tech­no­lo­gies:

Quan­tum Tech­no­lo­gies are con­side­red a stra­te­gic field of the future with signi­fi­cant eco­no­mic and socie­tal poten­ti­al. A key chall­enge is the tran­si­ti­on of pro­mi­sing tech­no­lo­gies from the labo­ra­to­ry to sca­lable indus­tri­al manu­fac­tu­ring pro­ces­ses. To date, repro­du­ci­b­le manu­fac­tu­ring methods and com­mon stan­dards for design, cali­bra­ti­on, con­trol, and test­ing are often still lack­ing. The­se gaps hin­der sca­lable pro­duc­tion and wide­spread mar­ket deploy­ment. Against this back­ground, “Q‑PLANET (Quan­tum Pilot Line for pro­duc­tion of Advan­ced chips for Neu­tral atom Euro­pean Tech­no­lo­gies)” was laun­ched in May 2026 as a new Euro­pean pilot line for the indus­tri­al deploy­ment of neu­tral-atom-based Quan­tum Chips. The pro­ject is fun­ded with around €50 mil­li­on by the Euro­pean Chips Joint Under­ta­king (Chips JU) and addi­tio­nal­ly co-finan­ced by natio­nal and regio­nal aut­ho­ri­ties. The goal is to estab­lish indus­tri­al manu­fac­tu­ring pro­ces­ses for neu­tral-atom-based Quan­tum Tech­no­lo­gies and pro­vi­de indus­tri­al-gra­de com­pon­ents. At the same time, stan­dar­di­zed deve­lo­p­ment and manu­fac­tu­ring tools will be crea­ted to faci­li­ta­te access to Quan­tum Tech­no­lo­gies, par­ti­cu­lar­ly for start-ups and small and medi­um-sized enter­pri­ses (SMEs). Q‑PLANET is one of six Euro­pean Quan­tum Pilot Lines within the frame­work of the Chips JU. The pilot line aims to acce­le­ra­te the tran­si­ti­on from rese­arch to indus­tri­al manu­fac­tu­ring and ther­eby streng­then Europe’s tech­no­lo­gi­cal sove­reig­n­ty in the field of Quan­tum Tech­no­lo­gies.

Q‑PLANET brings tog­e­ther 28 part­ners from rese­arch and indus­try across ele­ven Euro­pean Mem­ber Sta­tes under the coor­di­na­ti­on of the French Quan­tum Tech­no­lo­gy Com­pa­ny Pas­qal. The con­sor­ti­um includes, among others, the Uni­ver­si­ties of Stutt­gart, Stras­bourg, and War­saw. The Fraun­ho­fer Hein­rich-Hertz-Insti­tut für Nach­rich­ten­tech­nik (HHI), a part­ner in the Schirm­pro­jekt Quan­ten­kom­mu­ni­ka­ti­on Deutsch­land (SQuaD), is also part of the con­sor­ti­um. Within Q‑PLANET, HHI is deve­lo­ping a pilot line for the pro­duc­tion, assem­bly, and cha­rac­te­riza­ti­on of opto­elec­tro­nic cir­cuits for con­trol­ling neu­tral-atom-based Quan­tum Chips.

During the three-year pro­ject peri­od, Q‑PLANET will fur­ther deve­lop key com­pon­ents for Quan­tum Com­pu­ting, Quan­tum Sens­ing, and Quan­tum Com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on. The­se include lasers at four key wave­lengths (461 nm, 698 nm, 795 nm, and 1013 nm), atom chips, as well as micros­truc­tu­red vapor cells for ato­mic clocks and field sen­sors. The com­pon­ents will be advan­ced from Tech­no­lo­gy Rea­di­ness Level (TRL) 4 to TRL 6 through three con­se­cu­ti­ve design, fabri­ca­ti­on, and test­ing cycles. In par­al­lel, stan­dar­di­zed Pro­cess Design Kits (PDKs) and Assem­bly Design Kits (ADKs) will be deve­lo­ped to sup­port the trans­fer of tech­no­lo­gies into indus­tri­al manu­fac­tu­ring pro­ces­ses. Q‑PLANET will thus not only bring indi­vi­du­al Quan­tum Com­pon­ents to indus­tri­al matu­ri­ty but also estab­lish a joint Euro­pean manu­fac­tu­ring and deve­lo­p­ment basis for Quan­tum Tech­no­lo­gies. Click here for more infor­ma­ti­on about Q‑PLANET.

 

Source refe­ren­ces: https://www.hhi.fraunhofer.de/en/press/news/kick-off-for-q-planet-european-pilot-line-for-the-industrialization-of-neutral-atom-quantum-chips.html; https://www.q‑planet.eu/