Project overview
Quantum Technology (QT) is a UK National Priority subject to over £3.5bn of existing and future strategic government investment. Quantum research is a UKRI Grand challenge across EPSRC, Innovate UK and the SBRI, with an emphasis on developing manufacturing processes and products that deliver quantum advantage from the laboratory to real-world applications. Many quantum technologies rely on enabling optical components, devices and infrastructure for the generation, manipulation, and routing of light for interaction with atoms and ions; this forms the technical basis for quantum sensors, quantum imaging, quantum networks, and quantum computing. Worldwide, there is an estimated $38.6bn of national funding in QT annually (Qureca 2023) across hundreds of quantum research groups, representing a $Bn market for optical components, most of which have yet to be standardised. Balancing the ability to rapidly prototype, change, and scale complex optical parts with sustainable manufacture is central to building a viable supply chain for QT-enabling components, achieving growth from bench-level demonstrators to commercial sales, and advancing the UK?s position within both the quantum and photonics global markets. Building on a decade of EPSRC capital investment, a solid technical foundation and track record of delivery to the quantum community, our research programme seeks to establish ultra-precision machining as the de-facto approach to scalable, sustainable manufacture of optical components for quantum-enabling technologies. Our project will address key manufacturing challenges posed by the photonics industry to remove known barriers to optical automation, including: automated on-wafer ultra-precision machining of optical quality facets to eliminate the labour-intensive handling, mounting, cleaning and inspection associated with chip-scale optical polishing; automated milling of millimetres-deep ultra-precise optical quality structures to avoid cleanroom and chemical-intensive etching processes and enable a new class of compact quantum atom trap components; and introduction of intelligent feedback and control of the machining system to enable continuous, unmanned operation while maintaining quality between tools and wafers. These represent critical processes required to achieve photonic back-end processing suitable for a scalable automated photonics assembly line. Critically, fabrication using semiconductor machining tools can be performed without the need for expensive, energy-hungry, chemical-intensive cleanroom processing. This is better for the environment, provides a better balance between prototyping and scalable processing for moderate-volume quantum devices, and represents a better route for every quantum start-up and SME to achieve complex optical components in-house without excessive capital investment.
