Pasqal moves Q-PLANET into industrial implementation

Pasqal is moving the €50 million Q-PLANET neutral-atom quantum pilot line into implementation, coordinating a European programme designed to turn laboratory-scale components into manufacturing processes that can be repeated across different organisations and facilities.

The initial three-year phase brings together 28 partners from 11 European countries and is co-funded by the EU Chips Joint Undertaking and national or regional authorities. Work covers industrial-grade components for neutral-atom quantum computing, sensing and communications, including chip-based lasers, atom chips and microfabricated vapour cells.

Four optical wavelengths sit within the programme: 461 nm, 698 nm, 795 nm and 1013 nm. Those sources support different atomic species and functions across quantum computing, sensing and timing. Pasqal is leading development of chip-based laser components at 1013 nm and will also use laser sources and vapour cells produced through the programme, providing system requirements for their development, testing and validation.

The manufacturing challenge extends beyond fabricating individual devices. Neutral-atom systems combine photonic sources, atomic structures, control electronics, packaging and precision optical interfaces, often developed through processes that differ substantially between research organisations. A component that works in one laboratory process therefore needs more than a good device design before another facility can manufacture it consistently.

Q-PLANET is addressing that transfer problem through standardised Process Design Kits and Assembly Design Kits. PDKs capture manufacturing rules, process capabilities and device parameters for designers, while ADKs perform a similar role for assembly and packaging. Established semiconductor foundries use these interfaces to separate circuit design from the details of individual production tools; quantum hardware has yet to reach the same level of process abstraction.

The consortium expects the first set of components to move from technology readiness level 4 to level 6 through three iterative design, fabrication and test cycles. That progression requires hardware to move beyond laboratory validation into increasingly representative operating environments, exposing process variation, packaging losses, calibration requirements and test limitations that one-off prototypes can hide.

Several partners divide the manufacturing work by technology and wavelength. Silicon Austria Labs leads 461 nm laser-component work and high-speed modulator development, while Fraunhofer HHI is responsible for 698 nm chip-based laser components and contributes hybrid integration across indium phosphide, thin-film lithium niobate and silicon nitride. VTT is developing silicon-nitride devices at 1013 nm alongside packaging and assembly-design methods.

French partners cover much of the atom-chip and vapour-cell activity. CNRS laboratories contribute atom-chip manufacturing and atomic-clock, inertial-sensing and field-sensing expertise, while other partners provide fabrication centres, testing infrastructure and system-level evaluation. That distributed structure gives Q-PLANET access to specialist processes, but it also increases the need for common design rules and measurement methods.

Testing is therefore part of the pilot line rather than a final inspection step. Components produced on different material platforms have to meet common optical, electrical and mechanical requirements before they can be integrated into larger systems. Characterisation also feeds back into the PDK and ADK data, allowing later designs to reflect measured process performance rather than idealised models.

Europe is taking a similar pilot-line approach across several quantum hardware platforms. Quobly recently entered the FAMES pilot line for silicon quantum development, where access to shared semiconductor processes is being used to raise manufacturing maturity. Q-PLANET applies the same industrial logic to neutral-atom components, whose fabrication needs span photonics, microfabrication, packaging and atomic-system integration.

The programme is structured under a six-year framework, with the current three-year phase concentrating on technology maturity and manufacturing infrastructure. A subsequent phase is expected to widen user access and adoption. Before that expansion can happen, the first phase has to establish that its lasers, atom chips and vapour cells can be produced, assembled and tested using processes that remain useful outside the laboratories that created them.