The initiative is one of six quantum pilot lines established under the EU Chips Act to strengthen Europe\u2019s technological capability and sovereignty in strategic quantum domains.<\/p>\n
Coordinated by Belgian research centre imec, the \u20ac50 million programme brings together 25 partners across Europe, including research organisations, industry players and academic groups. Funding is provided through the European Union\u2019s Chips Joint Undertaking (Chips JU) alongside contributions from national and regional authorities.<\/p>\n
Quantum computing is increasingly viewed as a critical technology area, with potential applications spanning drug discovery, advanced materials development, secure communications and next\u2011generation navigation systems. However, the field continues to face a significant gap between scientific advances and the ability to manufacture large\u2011scale, stable quantum processors.<\/p>\n
Scaling quantum devices to as many as one billion error\u2011corrected qubits is considered essential for building practical, fault\u2011tolerant quantum computers. Achieving this requires highly specialised fabrication, cryogenic operation, and precision control electronics\u2014capabilities that Europe aims to advance through its network of pilot lines.<\/p>\n
Within this framework, SPINS focuses specifically on semiconductor spin qubits for quantum computing. The consortium includes major research institutes such as Fraunhofer, VTT and CEA\u2011Leti; industrial partners including Infineon, Siltronic and several SMEs; and academic groups such as TU Delft and the University of Jyv\u00e4skyl\u00e4.<\/p>\n
Initial work will concentrate on optimising processes and design methodologies to support scalable and stable spin\u2011qubit devices across three technology platforms: Si\/SiGe, Ge\/GeSi and SOI. The pilot line aims to establish a lab\u2011to\u2011fab pathway supported by Multi\u2011Project Wafers (MPWs) and standardised quantum Process Design Kits (PDKs). These tools are intended to lower barriers for startups and smaller companies, helping build early industrial capacity in European quantum technologies.<\/p>\n
Kristiaan De Greve, SPINS coordinator, said highly controlled manufacturing environments are essential for producing reliable quantum devices. \u201cScaling qubits requires an extremely controllable environment and solid manufacturing processing, in view of the extreme sensitivity of qubits to environmental noise,\u201d he said. \u201cThese challenges require both the accuracy and control that is only present in state of semiconductor cleanroom infrastructure, combined with the research and innovation mentality to adjust such an environment to address these sensitive qubits.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that the strengths of the partners involved will accelerate development. \u201cBy bundling the expertise of our European consortium partners in this quantum pilot line, we will speed up the development of high\u2011TRL semiconductor qubits and thereby enable larger\u2011scale quantum systems made in Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n
SPINS forms part of a wider European strategy to develop multiple quantum hardware platforms. Alongside semiconductor spin qubits, the EU has launched pilot lines focused on photonic quantum technologies (P4Q), ion\u2011trap qubits (CHAMP\u2011ION), superconducting qubits (SUPREME), diamond quantum chips (DIREQT) and neutral\u2011atom platforms (Q PLANET).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The initiative is one of six quantum pilot lines established under the EU Chips Act to strengthen Europe\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":876145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[3284,2000,31164,299,5187,3591,2343,31167,248341],"class_list":["post-876144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-computing","tag-eu","tag-eu-chips-act","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-quantum","tag-research","tag-semiconductors","tag-spins-pilot-line"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116358670388970436","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=876144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/876145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=876144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=876144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=876144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}