Singapore's National Quantum Federated Foundry (NQFF) has partnered with Qolab, a quantum computing company co-founded by 2025 Physics Nobel Laureate Professor John M. Martinis, to advance the worldwide quantum hardware ecosystem. The partnership will tackle superconducting quantum processor scalability, a major technical challenge in building a utility-scale quantum computer. The cooperation develops and manufactures wafer-scale cryogenic low-pass filters to replace bulky, manual components with integrated solutions that can support millions of qubits.

The Environmental Noise Challenge

These efforts aim to protect delicate quantum states from outside effects. Superconducting qubits, used by top companies, operate at temperatures near absolute zero. Qubits' extreme susceptibility to high-frequency microwave noise can cause decoherence and processing issues at millikelvin temperatures.

Quantum systems use cryogenic low-pass filters as shields to allow control pulses but reject unwanted signals. Current industry standards use bulky, discrete components that are prone to errors and difficult to mass-produce. Traditional filtering procedures increased the physical and reliability load on the dilution refrigerator's tiny volume as the industry moved from dozens to millions of qubits.

Solution at Wafer Scale

From single parts to semiconductor wafer manufacturing, the NQFF-Qolab partnership wants to change this hardware. This technique uses Singapore's semiconductor manufacturing expertise and NQFF's quantum device nanofabrication expertise. The company wants to manufacture filters directly on silicon wafers like computer chips to integrate them densely with qubit circuits.

Qolab's CTO, Professor Martinis, stressed the need for this modification. He added we need reliable, producible supporting hardware and additional qubits to scale from dozens to millions of qubits to develop real quantum computers. This unique strategy should increase quantum package stability and substantially reduce hardware footprint.

Singapore Quantum Hardware Hub

Qolab chose Singaporean researchers for its semiconductor and tech ecosystem. Through ongoing investments in Research, Innovation, and Enterprise (RIE) under the National Quantum Strategy, Singapore has become a global quantum supply chain hub.

The National Quantum Office of A*STAR supports this collaboration. As a federated network, the NQFF uses the capacities of several key institutions:

Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, A*STAR

The A*STAR Microelectronics Institute

National University of Singapore

Mr. Ling Keok Tong, Executive Director of the National Quantum Office, said the collaboration proves that Singapore can solve hardware difficulties using quantum research and semiconductor engineering.

Global Collaboration and Deployment

This research aims to affect beyond Singapore. This partnership's cryogenic filters will be used in quantum systems at UCLA. This UCLA pledge highlights the worldwide quantum hardware industry's cooperation and Singapore's growing manufacturing capability.

Digital Development and Information Minister Josephine Teo saw the research collaboration agreement signing. The signing took occurred during a significant quantum event that included a public discussion by Professor Martinis on superconducting qubit history and prospects and a NQFF Industry Day with hardware advances from important participants globally.

Road to Fault-Tolerance

Qolab aims to create fault-tolerant, utility-scale superconducting quantum computers. The NQFF-Qolab collaboration is overcoming the cryogenic filtering “bottleneck” to prepare quantum processors for the future.

Scalable Superconducting Qubit Device from Nobel-Led Qolab Advances Israel's Quantum Future

Qolab Quantum

Qolab, a renowned superconducting qubit system developer, implemented its next-generation scalable qubit device at the Israeli Quantum Computing Centre (IQCC) in Tel Aviv, advancing international quantum research and boosting Israel's technology hub reputation. This is the first installation of Qolab's cutting-edge gear outside Madison, Wisconsin. The implementation immediately improves the IQCC and promotes a shared goal of making quantum technology usable infrastructure.

This deployment is significant because of Qolab's history. Nobel Laureate John M. Martinis co-founded Qolab. His work laid the groundwork for superconducting quantum computing. Google's quantum hardware branch (now Google Quantum AI) achieved “quantum supremacy” under Martinis, making him famous worldwide. Qolab's main goal is to turn this rich, foundational knowledge into functional systems optimised for reliable performance and, most crucially, scalability, a major quantum sector constraint.

The government-founded IQCC provides the ideal testing and development environment for this innovative technology. A national asset, the centre promotes basic and practical quantum computing research. It recruits top personnel and builds infrastructure to maintain Israeli business and education at the forefront of the quantum revolution. By housing Qolab's device, the IQCC becomes a global hardware research hub, enabling unrivalled access to a system designed for scientific investigation.

Engineering Future Qubits

The deployed hardware is an engineering breakthrough, not a duplicate of quantum systems. This gadget built for hardware research scientists focusses on high-fidelity, fabrication repeatability, and scalability in practical quantum computation.

The Qolab platform uses superconducting qubits. These produce artificial atoms using microscopic circuits that exhibit quantum mechanical properties when cooled near absolute zero. Despite their strength, qubits are brittle. Developing large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computers is hindered by decoherence, quantum computers' extraordinary noise sensitivity.

The Qolab processor was designed to address this issue. It precisely targets flux noise and dramatically reduces decoherence. Flux noise from microscopic faults and impurities in superconducting materials can quickly destroy the qubit's sensitive quantum states. Qolab used Martinis's team's fundamental physics concepts and cutting-edge semiconductor manufacturing techniques to construct a durable processor. Quantum process accuracy will improve with higher gate fidelities and longer coherence durations.

Developing fabrication repeatability is a minor but important quantum manufacturing development. Quantum chip mass production demands yield-optimized semiconductor manufacturing instead of customised lab techniques. Qolab devices can be made consistently, quickly, and reliably in the future, enabling quantum computers with hundreds or thousands of interconnected, high-quality qubits.

Hybrid Control and Collaboration Power

The gadget and Quantum Machines (QM), its strategic partner,'s cutting-edge control technologies are needed to implement this complicated hardware. QM, a quantum control pioneer, is providing its cutting-edge hybrid control technology to power the Qolab in the IQCC environment.

Quantum control turns high-level quantum algorithms into accurate, real-time microwave and radio-frequency pulses needed to manage qubits. The QM platform combines quantum technology modes well. This is crucial at the IQCC, where scientists must work with superconducting, photonic, and trapped-ion quantum computing models. QM makes co-located, multi-modality research possible by providing a unified, adaptive control framework that lets researchers switch between or combine quantum systems in a coherent study environment.

Quantum Machines co-founder and CEO Itamar Sivan stressed this partnership's strategic importance. According to Sivan, the project “focused on transforming scientific breakthroughs into functioning quantum infrastructure”. These comments are consistent with industry opinion that we must get past isolated academic triumphs and construct reliable, integrated, and strong commercial systems to support ongoing research and development to advance quantum development.

Global Access and Future

This alliance accelerates worldwide hardware development, expanding Qolab's impact beyond Tel Aviv. The IQCC cloud platform will allow researchers worldwide to access Qolab's complementary devices in Madison, Wisconsin, as part of its global quantum development efforts.

By allowing scientists globally to experiment with next-generation quantum gear without the financial and logistical burden of running their own multimillion-dollar lab, cloud-based access democratises cutting-edge technology.