Imec and Diraq Fabricate First 8-Qubit Silicon Spin Array

Imec and Diraq have achieved coherent operation and readout of eight silicon MOS spin qubits, fabricated using a fully CMOS-compatible 300mm foundry process. This is a significant step beyond the previously common two-qubit devices in quantum computing research. The demonstration, detailed in a recent Nature Communications paper, indicates that standard industrial semiconductor manufacturing techniques can support the scaling of quantum processors to larger, more complex arrays. This achievement builds upon earlier work establishing the viability of individual silicon spin qubits and now extends that success to an eight-qubit linear array while maintaining necessary coherence and controllability. “The future of quantum computing depends not only on qubit quality but also on the ability to manufacture increasingly complex quantum processors with the reproducibility, yield and scale of the semiconductor industry,” said Kristiaan De Greve, fellow and program director quantum computing at imec.

300mm CMOS Foundry Process Fabricates Eight Silicon MOS Spin Qubits

This fabrication, performed on Imec’s advanced 300mm spin-qubit technology platform, showcases the potential for leveraging established semiconductor manufacturing techniques to build increasingly complex quantum processors, a departure from specialized laboratory methods. The results, detailed in a Nature Communications paper, confirm that industrial production capabilities can support quantum systems exceeding the limitations of single or dual-qubit architectures, and maintain the necessary coherence and controllability for future scalability. Researchers successfully fabricated the eight-qubit linear array while also addressing a key challenge in scaling: readout architecture. The team found that increasing the array size did not necessitate a proportional increase in sensor count, wiring density, or thermal load, suggesting a pathway towards compact, large-scale quantum processors. This favorable scaling ratio is crucial for practical implementation, as maintaining compactness is essential for building processors with a significant number of qubits.

Imec’s platform, developed over nearly a decade of process optimization, bridges the gap between laboratory experiments and commercially viable quantum technologies, utilizing CMOS-compatible manufacturing. Andrew Dzurak, Founder and CEO of Diraq, added that this is what an industrial pathway to quantum computing looks like, emphasizing the importance of this scalable manufacturing approach and noting that the same process used nine months prior to demonstrate qubit reliability was successfully applied to this larger array without compromising coherence.

The pursuit of viable quantum computers has largely focused on increasing qubit counts while preserving the delicate quantum states necessary for computation; however, maintaining coherence as qubit arrays grow presents a significant engineering challenge. This achievement signifies a move towards leveraging established semiconductor manufacturing techniques for building quantum processors, rather than relying solely on specialized laboratory fabrication. The eight-qubit devices were created on Imec’s silicon spin-qubit platform, built upon nearly a decade of CMOS-compatible process optimization and engineering. This allows for the creation of highly compact arrays, a critical requirement for large-scale quantum processors, and represents a departure from architectures that become unwieldy as qubit numbers rise. The results, published in Nature Communications, build upon earlier work from Imec and Diraq, published in Nature in 2025, which demonstrated the viability of individual and two-qubit building blocks with fidelity levels suitable for quantum error correction.