Page 12 - Summer 2025
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Industry News
Scalable Production of World’s First Quantum- products. With IQE’s industrial capabilities and
powered Universal Memory Innovate UK’s support, we have taken a critical step
toward building sovereign capability in memory -
IQE, a commercial supplier of compound the most strategically vital yet underrepresented
semiconductor wafer products and advanced segment of the UK semiconductor stack”.
material solutions, has successfully completed
a project to develop scalable production of Reference: Tyler, N., ‘IQE and Quinas Technology complete £1.1m
ULTRARAM, the world’s first quantum-powered ULTRARAM Industrialisation Project’, New Electronics, 17th. June
universal memory, in collaboration with Quinas
Technology and Lancaster and Cardiff Universities.
Cork Scientists pioneer Method for identifying
Quantum Materials
Scientists at University College Cork have
developed a new technique for identifying
materials for the next generation of large scale,
fault-tolerant quantum computers.
For the first time it has become possible to determine
MORE DEVELOPMENTS IN absolutely whether a material possesses the intrinsic
properties required for certain types of quantum
QUANTUM COMPUTING computing chips.
The team focused specifically on the compound
uranium ditelluride, a superconductor already
considered for topological quantum computing,
and at the heart of the research was a series of
experiments that used a variant of highly specialised
tunnelling microscopy, STM, known as Andreev STM,
which is only available at University College Cork,
Oxford University and Cornell University.
In the project IQE successfully scaled up the
Superconductor Prototyping for Critical
manufacture of compound semiconductor layers
Technologies
initially developed by Lancaster University into a
The University of Glasgow has received a £1.5 million complete industrial process, completing the first step
grant from the UKRI Engineering and Research towards the commercial production of packaged
Council (EPSRC) for its three-year Superconducting ULTRARAM chips. IQE has notably pioneered an
Prototyping for Critical Technologies (Super-CT) advanced capability in gallium antimonide and
project to support the development of more efficient aluminium antimonide epitaxy, which represents a
superconductors, which will help accelerate world first for scalable epitaxy for memory devices.
advances in quantum technologies.
ULTRARAM is a dual-use technology that was
The project brings together researchers from invented at Lancaster University, combining the non-
Glasgow University’s James Watt School of volatility of a data storage memory, such as flash,
Engineering and university spinout Quantcore to with the speed and endurance of a working memory
construct the UK’s first fabrication facility for niobium- such as DRAM, while providing significantly improved
based superconducting circuits for use in quantum energy efficiency. It is envisaged to have a pivotal
computing devices. Scotland’s central belt is home to a unique role in areas such as artificial intelligence, quantum
concentration of expertise across the cutting- computing, space and defence.
Niobium circuits offer numerous advantages over the
edge technologies which will enable the quantum
traditional aluminium type, which can be affected by Jutta Meier, Chief Executive Officer of IQE, states:
devices of the future. We can handle everything from
external noise. The niobium circuits notably operate Andreev STM was used to examine the quantum
fundamental research to prototype development “We have successfully achieved our goal of
more reliably and at faster clock rates with lower properties of uranium ditelluride using a
at the James Watt Nanofabrication Centre and developing a scalable epitaxy process for
power consumption. superconducting probe rather than the more
ultimately to commercial fabrication. ULTRARAM, a milestone towards industrial
conventional metal tips, which allowed the team
The pioneering foundry will examine how the circuits production of packaged chips. This project
This new funding from EPSRC to help establish Super- to isolate and observe critical particles known as
can be built and scaled up from single chips to larger represents a unique opportunity to bring the next
CT will help drive breakthrough advances in niobium- Majorana fermions, on the material’s surface. This
scale manufacturing on silicon wafers, which is a key generation of compound semiconductor materials
based superconductors. It will unlock new capabilities provided an important validation for this probing
step towards being able to produce the circuits on a to life in the UK, and we are proud of our work
in quantum systems, help build the strength of the method.
commercial scale. with Quinas, Lancaster and Cardiff Universities
UK’s cutting-edge supply chain, and further establish
to advance commercial production and create Microsoft has recently released the world’s first
Project Leader Professor Martin Weides says: Scotland as a key driver for the technologies of the
world-leading universal memory devices”. Quantum Processing Unit powered by a ‘Topological
future.
“Superconductors are the foundation on which the Core’ using synthetic topological superconductors
James Ashforth-Pook, Chief Executive Officer of
technologies of the future will be built. Quantum assembled from layered conventional materials.
Reference: West, P., ‘£1.5m Boost will deliver Quantum Leap for Quinas Technology, adds:
computers, sensors and communications all rely
Superconductor Manufacturing’, Electronic Specifier, 19th. June Now, the findings from Cork are envisaged to open
on superconducting circuits operating at very low “This project marks a turning point in the journey the door to identifying materials that could effectively
temperatures.” from university research to commercial memory replace otherwise complex architectures, enabling
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