Nord Quantique, a leading scale-up company in quantum error correction, today announced the signing of agreements with two new partners to secure its long-term supply chain for quantum computer chip manufacturing. Both partners are located within the emerging Northeast Semiconductor Manufacturing Corridor, a region dedicated to the production of microelectronics and quantum microchips, stretching from New York to Montreal and across the border between New York State and Canada's provinces of Quebec. In the coming years, dozens of companies in the region will play a key role in the backshoring of North American semiconductor manufacturing.
Nord Quantique has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the MiQro Innovation Collaboration Center (C2MI) in Bromont, Quebec. C2MI provides world-class infrastructure dedicated to the manufacture of advanced semiconductors, compound semiconductors, and electronic systems, as well as printed electronics and other advanced technologies. The company has also signed a memorandum of understanding with the New York Center for Research, Economic Development, Technology, Engineering and Science (NY CREATES), which manages and operates the most advanced not-for-profit 300mm semiconductor and quantum R&D facility in North America and has been a leader in semiconductor innovation for more than two decades.
Michel Pioro-Ladrière, Vice President of Partnerships and Strategy at Nord Quantique, said: "This is an important milestone for Nord Quantique as we continue our journey to develop fault-tolerant quantum computers. Partnering with these key stakeholders will help ensure that we have access to a supply of microchips from reliable sources when needed. We believe this will provide us with significant advantages in the coming years, both in terms of access and cost, as quantum systems will continue to scale. "Strengthening our manufacturing, packaging and testing processes, while ensuring a seamless and robust value chain, will put us in an enviable position in the industry."
Pictured: Nord Quantique partners ensure chip supply chain security
These partnerships will bring complementary benefits to Nord Quantique. It will work with C2MI to use specialized tools for industrial-grade manufacturing of superconducting qubits. The company will also partner with NY CREATES to leverage CMOS fabrication tools for scalable, predictable qubit fabrication for comprehensive testing and scale. For companies seeking to produce low-volume chips with unique specifications, it is often challenging to have readily accessible access to these types of facilities. The partnership announced today is designed to help companies first determine exactly what is needed and then ensure that production can be executed in a timely manner to meet the company's stringent requirements for reliability, repeatability, and scalability.
Marie-Josée Turgeon, CEO of C2MI, added: "This new addition to our expanding partnership ecosystem reflects our important role as an R&D hub. This partnership lays the foundation for future projects that will combine C2MI's expertise in advanced packaging and industrial micromanufacturing with Nord Quantique's groundbreaking innovations in superconducting qubits. ”
Today's announcement means that Nord Quantique is protecting its supply chain. By ensuring access to these key strategic components, the company has now eliminated an important risk factor from its long-term growth strategy.
Dr. Satyavolu Papa Rao, Vice President of Research at NY CREATES, said, "The growing collaboration between NY CREATES and Nord Quantique leverages each organization's unique strengths. "The combination of NY CREATES researchers' deep expertise in manufacturing quantum devices in our state-of-the-art 300mm fab with Nord Quantique's innovation in quantum computing chip design demonstrates synergies within the Northeast semiconductor manufacturing corridor."
These partnerships build on existing synergies in the DistriQ quantum zone, which allow Nord Quantique to spearhead the development of its error-correcting quantum computing architecture and advanced qubit manufacturing. This facilitated a successful demonstration of qubit error correction using boson code and demonstrated a clear path to fault-tolerant quantum computing while significantly reducing the number of qubits required. This synergy has also led to the company's ability to overcome the daunting challenge of manufacturing high-performance superconducting circuits, a key component in its quantum architecture.
Nord Quantique's latest move is closely linked to ongoing efforts in the United States and Canada to strengthen strong, reliable supply chains for components of advanced technologies, including error-correcting quantum computing.
