Diraq Silicon Qubits Reach Eight-Qubit Scale On imec 300mm Line

Diraq reports operating a full array of eight silicon qubits, a result published in Nature that indicates a viable path toward practical quantum computing. The company fabricated the qubit array using imec’s 300 mm CMOS foundry process, the same technology used for conventional semiconductors, demonstrating that existing manufacturing infrastructure can support quantum chip production. This scaling from two to eight qubits, achieved in under a year, maintains key performance metrics such as coherence and control quality, thereby addressing a major hurdle in quantum computer development. “This is what an industrial pathway to quantum computing looks like,” said Andrew Dzurak, Founder and CEO of Diraq, adding that the company targets scaling to thousands of qubits by 2029 and more than one million qubits by 2031.

Innovation Highlights:

• CMOS-native manufacturing processes, which have been refined over decades by the semiconductor industry, can be used to produce quantum chips that scale reliably.
  
• Larger arrays of silicon spin qubits maintain good performance along key metrics (coherence, control quality, architectural scalability for readouts) that was first demonstrated in smaller, two-qubit arrays.
  
• This level of performance and manufacturability will scale as array sizes increase, enabling silicon spin qubits to make a commercially useful quantum computer.

imec 300mm CMOS Fabrication of Silicon Qubits

Diraq’s recent advancements rely on a manufacturing process familiar to the semiconductor industry: imec’s 300mm complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) platform was used to fabricate an eight-qubit array, demonstrating a path toward mass production of quantum processors. Published in Nature, the results reveal that silicon qubits can be scaled using established CMOS techniques without sacrificing performance, a critical challenge for practical quantum computing. This builds on a 2025 demonstration in which Diraq successfully manufactured two-qubit devices at the same imec facility, achieving over 99% operational fidelity, a key benchmark for reliable quantum error correction. The significance of this approach lies in leveraging decades of refinement within semiconductor manufacturing, allowing for the production of quantum chips that scale predictably and economically.

Unlike other qubit modalities that often require entirely new hardware with each increase in qubit count, Diraq’s silicon spin qubits have demonstrated scaling on the same wafer technology, achieved in under a year. This extends to the readout architecture, which did not require a substantial increase in sensor count or wiring density as the array expanded. Maintaining performance during scaling is a major hurdle in quantum computing, and Diraq’s approach avoids the need for entirely new manufacturing infrastructure.

This achievement is notable because it leverages decades of refinement within the existing semiconductor industry, potentially accelerating the path to mass production of quantum processors. The team reports achieving this scaling in under a year, a pace crucial for realising practical quantum computers. This favorable scaling ratio suggests that future arrays can remain compact even as qubit numbers increase dramatically. Diraq’s roadmap outlines an ambitious but concrete timeline, targeting devices with thousands of qubits by 2029 and exceeding one million qubits by 2031.

Diraq is building on a September 2025 achievement, in which its patented silicon spin-qubit technology was manufactured using imec’s 300 mm complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) platform, and has now demonstrated an eight-qubit array fabricated with the same process.

Read more about the Diraq roadmap and the innovation announced on the 9th July 2026 titled “Eight-Qubit Operation of a 300 mm SiMOS Foundry-Fabricated Device” in Nature, marking another step on the company’s journey as they aim for over 1 million qubits by 2031.