Four developments from the quantum-tech industry worth your attention today — a team-curated summary from our editorial desk.
IBM Completes Acquisition of HRL Laboratories, Adding Silicon-Spin Qubit Expertise
IBM (International Business Machines) said it has completed its acquisition of HRL Laboratories, a longtime corporate research lab jointly owned by Boeing and General Motors, first announced in July and finalized August 26. The deal brings IBM HRL’s expertise in silicon-spin qubits, quantum sensing, cryogenics, control electronics and packaging — capabilities that complement IBM’s superconducting-qubit lead and are expected to strengthen its hardware roadmap across multiple quantum modalities. The combined organization will continue existing research relationships with Boeing and General Motors while pursuing new quantum applications.
Source: IBM Newsroom
NSF Renews $37.5M Quantum Sensing Institute for Biology, Led by University of Chicago
The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) said it has renewed the Quantum Leap Challenge Institute for Quantum Sensing for Biophysics and Bioengineering (QuBBE) with a five-year, $37.5 million investment, moving the program from proof-of-principle sensing demonstrations toward robust tools for studying living systems. Led by the University of Chicago in partnership with Chicago State University, the University of Illinois Chicago and Harvard University, among other collaborators, the renewed institute will develop quantum nanoprobes, protein-based quantum sensors and entanglement-based sensing methods for in vivo measurements, while expanding quantum workforce and education programs through its Chicago-area partner campuses.
Source: University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering
Cornell Cuts Tantalum Qubit Deposition Temperature in Half Using Krypton Gas
Researchers at Cornell University, led by assistant professor Valla Fatemi, have developed a krypton-gas sputtering process that deposits high-quality superconducting tantalum films at around 200°C — roughly half the temperature typically required for the corrosion-resistant metal, a threshold that had put tantalum out of reach for many semiconductor foundries’ existing tools. The lower-temperature films showed substantially higher electronic conductivity and produced high-quality qubits in test devices, widening the manufacturing window for tantalum-based superconducting quantum chips. The peer-reviewed work, published in Nature Materials, was supported by the U.S. Department of War’s Microelectronics Commons Program, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) and the Cornell NanoScale Science and Technology Facility (CNF).
Source: Cornell Chronicle
Dirac Labs Raises $1.8M to Build Diamond-Based Quantum Navigation Sensors
Dirac Labs, a University of Wisconsin-Madison spinout building diamond-based quantum sensors for GPS-denied navigation, said it has raised $1.8 million in pre-seed funding led by TitletownTech — a venture firm formed by Microsoft and the Green Bay Packers — with participation from Automotive Ventures, Riceberg Ventures and quantumEDGE Ventures. The company’s sensors measure Earth’s magnetic field with high precision to enable positioning underwater, underground and in other environments where GPS signals cannot reach, and are designed to plug into existing GPS device ports on aircraft, submarines and other vehicles without re-engineering the platforms. The funding will support prototyping and field trials for defense and commercial customers.
Source: Dirac Labs press release (EIN Presswire)
Compiled by our AI editorial team (Quark & Prism), supervised by Mischa Hammann, from primary sources and industry coverage. Spotted an error or have a tip? Let us know. More on our team page. Not investment advice.