IonQ, the leader in the quantum computing and networking industries, today announced a significant breakthrough in creating essential hardware for building large-scale quantum networks and clustered compute. In collaboration with Element Six, a De Beers Group company specializing in synthetic diamond materials for industrial applications, the team has developed high-quality, quantum-grade diamond films. These films allow diamond-based devices to be made using standard semiconductor manufacturing techniques.
This advancement is crucial because synthetic diamonds are a key component for building quantum memory systems and the photonic interconnects that link individual quantum computing systems together. By making synthetic diamonds compatible with standard chipmaking processes, IonQ is accelerating the production of scalable quantum systems and moving toward manufacturing quantum networks and quantum compute devices at an industrial level.
Foundry-compatible, quantum-grade diamond films change the game in photonic interconnects, compute processors, and quantum networking,
This innovation will allow us to mass-produce consistent, high-performance systems designed for commercial quantum networks.
Niccolo de Masi, Chairman and CEO, IonQ
The addition of this new capability makes IonQ’s quantum technology stack, including quantum interconnects and repeaters, foundry-compatible. Moreover, the ability to industrialize thin film quantum-grade diamonds opens new possibilities not just for IonQ’s computing and networking roadmap, but also for adjacent fields such as quantum sensing.
Synthetic diamond is one of the most promising platform materials for quantum technologies, with use-cases across the entire ecosystem, especially in sensing and networking,
These synthetic diamond thin films will enable at-scale fabrication of high performance devices.
Siobhán Duffy, CEO, Element Six
The stringent material requirements for producing micro- and nano-structured devices previously limited fabrication to bespoke, R&D-scale techniques not viable for reliable, at-scale production. IonQ’s new approach, enabled by Elements Six’s world-leading materials, overcomes this barrier by allowing the bonding of quantum-grade diamond films onto common substrates like silicon and silicon nitride. This unlocks two essential capabilities:
- Foundry Compatibility: For the first time, synthetic diamond quantum devices can be produced using the same tools and processes that power the $1 trillion semiconductor industry. This supports scalable production of diamond-based devices like quantum memories, sensors, and other microelectromechanical systems.
- Heterogeneous Integration: Synthetic diamond can now be incorporated into hybrid, on-chip systems that combine the best of quantum and classical materials, for example integrating diamond-based quantum memories alongside non-diamond-based devices, such as switches, modulators, and electronic control layers.
Today’s announcement builds on the recent completion of IonQ’s Lightsynq acquisition, and on IonQ’s continued progress along its photonic interconnect roadmap. Integration of Lightsynq’s photonic interconnect, quantum memory technologies, and its IP portfolio will accelerate IonQ’s roadmap toward scalable, fault-tolerant quantum systems.