University of Twente Spinout
In an interview earlier in the month at CES 2023, Pim Venderbosch — a Quantum System Engineer at QuiX Quantum BV, a photonic quantum technology startup founded in 2019 by Dr. Hans van den Vlekkert and Jelmer Renema and a spinout from the University of Twente and partner of LioniX International, a company focused on silicon nitride integrated photonics — explained what exactly is going on at QuiX and what the hope is for the startup in the future.
“We are the market-leading photonic quantum hardware quantum computing company, and we are building a quantum computer based on photonics,” said Venderbosch. “We use light as our computing unit. In principle, quantum computing has the potential of solving problems that we cannot solve today with ordinary computers.”
Venderbosch gave the interviewer a short primer on what quantum computing is capable of: “For example, drug development can be accelerated by using quantum computing,” said Venderbosch.
Behind Venderbosch and the interviewer was one of the company’s quantum photonic processors.
“This is a product that we already sell,” said Venderbosch. “Not a lot of quantum companies are already selling products, so we’re really proud of that.”
Single Photon Inputs
Venderbosch said that with the company’s quantum photonic processor, you have to provide single photons on the inputs, which then go through what is actually the processor. From there, he said, a computation is performed for the needs of the user.
“The processed photons are going out of the system again, and on this output row, you will attach single photon detectors or folding detectors and then this gives you the result of your computation,” said Venderbosch.
QuiX is proud of its product. And by leveraging the power of the silicon nitrate chips inside the processor manufactured by LionX International, the company hopes to expand its customer base which currently is mainly universities.
Feature image: Credit CES 2023
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