TOPTICA Photonics Inc. Participates in Federally-Funded Quantum Project

Rochester-based TOPTICA Photonics Inc. will partner with the Quantum Ultra-broadband Integrated Circuits and Systems (QUPICS) team to develop a novel foundry fabrication platform for quantum technologies.

(PresseBox) (Gräfelfing, 17.12.2024) 

The QUPICS project – a coalition among multiple academic institutions, government labs, and technology manufacturers – has been selected to receive substantial support from the U.S. Department of Defense to accelerate the lab-to-fab transition in quantum technologies. This project, announced by officials from the Northeast Regional Defense Technology Hub (NORDTECH) on September 18 with an award of over $8.5M, is one of four initiatives receiving a total of $30M in funding through the hub under the Microelectronics Commons program. NORDTECH is a regional consortium of government labs, defense contractors, academic institutions, and technology manufacturing organizations in New York State and one of eight Microelectronics Commons Hubs composing the U.S. Microelectronics Commons program. The QUPICS team consists of AIM Photonics, Cornell University, Rochester Institute of Technology, Columbia University, Yale University, Air Force Research Laboratory, NIST, Quantinuum, Xanadu, and TOPTICA. Led by the American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics (AIM Photonics) and Cornell University, the team will develop a novel 300mm foundry fabrication platform for quantum technologies which will span the ultraviolet to the infrared. QUPICS will specially address the foundry gap for trapped ion, neutral atom, and photonic quantum technologies incorporating broadband photonics, electro-optic devices, multi-metal layer electrical functionality, and lasers into a single broadly available technology offering. QUPICS will develop and incorporate passive photonics, active components, and laser sources from the ultraviolet to the infrared geared to the use of quantum technologies. Integrated systems spanning this broad wavelength range are critical for a variety of photonics-heavy quantum systems for commercial and DoD priority applications in quantum sensing, networking, computation, and position navigation and timing (PNT). In later years QUPICS will open to multi-project wafer (MPW) runs and will be actively searching for partners from government laboratories, academia, and businesses.

“TOPTICA Photonics, Inc. is proud to partner with AIM Photonics, Cornell University and all the other great organizations that will contribute to this project,” said Mark Tolbert, CEO of TOPTICA Photonics Inc. “For more than two decades, TOPTICA has enabled quantum technologies and pushed innovation. We will do the same by developing chip-integrated lasers for the QUPICS project.”

View the AIM Photonics and Cornell University news release here.

About TOPTICA Photonics, Inc.

The US-based TOPTICA subsidiary in New York State was founded in 2002 and plays a strong role in the TOPTICA global picture. In addition to distributing the wide range of TOPTICA products manufactured in Germany, the North American location is responsible for the development and manufacture of optical isolators and continuous wave optical parametric oscillators (the TOPO). Additionally, it engages in ongoing research and development projects for the creation of future product lines. Our North American headquarters employs nearly 50 people and boasts almost 3,000 m² in office, warehouse, clean room, and manufacturing lab spaces.