Finnish Quantum company Bluefors starts R&D site on Delft Campus

News - 08 October 2018 - Communication


On 4 October during the Innovation Expo in Rotterdam, the Finnish company Bluefors announced that it will join the Delft quantum technology community and open an R&D office on the TU Delft campus. After Microsoft, Bluefors is the second international company to come to Delft. Their mission is to develop cryogenic technology for quantum computers. The Bluefors lab will be located in the old Applied Sciences building where QuTech is housed, the research center that has grown explosively over the last 5 years to over 200 fte.

Bluefors sells cryostats that are needed to cool the quantum chips that are developed in Delft to extremely low temperatures. Quantum effects such as superposition and entanglement that are used in quantum computers only manifest themselves under these circumstances. At this moment there are chips of a few dozen qubits, the basic units of quantum computers, in a cryostat. If the technology will be further scaled up in the coming years, the cryostats will also need to be developed further.

โ€œIt is important for us to be able to design these new specifications with leading users and to benefit from each other's knowledge", says Rob Blaauwgeers, CEO of Bluefors. โ€œThat is why we decided to carry out R&D close to the Delft research groups. In our new R&D lab we would like to collaborate with the Delft groups, but also with our other customers and partners from all over the world ". Ronald Hanson, scientific director, is delighted with the arrival of Bluefors: "I am happy to welcome Bluefors at the TU Delft Campus. It is an important step in our ambition to create a flourishing quantum hub here, that accelerates scientific, technological and market developments.โ€

Delft Quantum CampusThe Bluefors site is a new step towards a local ecosystem where not only students and researchers, but also companies work on this key technology of the future. Birch consultants has completed a feasibility study commissioned by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate and QuTech / TUD with the perspective of such an ecosystem, under the title: "Q-campus: building a Quantum ecosystem in Delft". This report was presented to State Secretary Mona Keijzer during the InnovationExpo. Birch's conclusion is that Delft has the potential to grow into one of the top quantum hubs in Europe with up to 900 direct jobs in 2023. It is up to the government, Delft University of Technology, the municipality of Delft, TNO and other regional stakeholders to take decisions about possible follow-up steps.

For questions: contact Freeke Heijman, f.heijman@tudelft.nl