COOL-CHIPS PROJECT

Chips to power the future of computing

The Cool-chips project advances the commercialization of SemiQon's cryo-optimized CMOS electronics that deliver power efficiency and scalability for quantum computing and critical technologies beyond.

Learn more

SemiQon cryo-CMOS chip mounted on a gold carrier against a dark background

Quantum computers have the potential to transform our world

From simulating new medicines to modelling climate systems, optimizing energy grids, and securing communications.

Healthcare & drug design

Climate & energy systems

Cybersecurity

& many more

Today's quantum computers are not yet powerful enough to deliver on this promise.

A key barrier is scalability. Scaling quantum systems remains one of the hardest engineering challenges.

The engineering challenge of scaling quantum

Scaling quantum computers from laboratory systems to large-scale machines remains one of the biggest challenges in the field, and a necessary step before quantum computing can deliver on its real-world promise. The electronics responsible for operating qubits typically sit outside the cryogenic environment where the processor must run.

Today's quantum computers require multiple control cables for every qubit. Scaling that architecture to thousands or millions of qubits quickly becomes impractical.

Wiring complexity

Thousands of cables connect room-temperature controllers to the quantum processor at the heart of the system, introducing bulk, cost, and signal noise that constrain scalability.

Thermal load

Control electronics dissipate heat, and even minimal thermal loads can disrupt qubit operations, placing a hard limit on the number of qubits that can be operated.

Cryogenic integration

Developing electronics that operate reliably within the cryogenic environment remains a significant challenge and an active focus of research and engineering across the field.

Addressing scalability with cryogenically optimized CMOS: control hardware engineered to run alongside the quantum processor inside the cryostat.

SemiQon cryo-optimized CMOS chip carrier and CMOS wafer

Cryo-optimized CMOS for scalable quantum systems

Cryo-optimized CMOS electronics are control electronics designed to operate in extremely low-temperature environments, the same cryogenic conditions in which quantum processors function.

The research behind cryo-CMOS technology

This technology builds on silicon MOSFETs, the core devices of modern CMOS, but specifically engineered using cryo-optimized FD-SOI technology to achieve ultra-low power and sharp switching at millikelvin temperatures.

Read the peer-reviewed paper Millikelvin Si-MOSFETs for Quantum Electronics, published in Applied Physics Letters, through the link below.

Research paper

Millikelvin Si-MOSFET transistor characteristics at cryogenic temperatures

Applications in multiple domains

Cryo-optimized CMOS electronics can enable breakthroughs across quantum computing and other industries where reliable, power-efficient operation at extremely low temperatures is essential.

Quantum Computing

Quantum integrated circuits and cryogenic peripherals for major qubit technologies, including superconducting, ion-trap, photonic, and spin qubit:

Control electronics
Readout electronics
Cryogenic memory
Cryogenic signal and data processing
Packaged quantum-dot R&D kits

Space Electronics

Cryogenic CMOS electronics for space applications, including:

Telescopes (bolometer, infra-red, x-ray)
Lunar and Mars exploration
SNSPD

High-Performance Computing

Cryo-CMOS PDK under development for integration into CPU/GPU/QPU:

Supercomputers
Data centres
AI servers