Optical control at the scale quantum computing requires.
LightlogiQ develops photonic integrated circuits that take in laser light on one fiber and deliver individually modulated optical channels to arrays of atomic qubits — fabricated in a CMOS foundry, validated at cryogenic temperatures, and proven in peer-reviewed system demonstrations with quantum computing hardware.
Atomic qubits are controlled with light. Light does not yet scale.
Neutral-atom and trapped-ion quantum computers perform gates with precisely modulated laser beams. Each qubit, or small group of qubits, requires its own optical channel with fast, high-extinction, low-crosstalk modulation. Today those channels are built from bulk acousto-optic and electro-optic devices — assembled, aligned, and maintained one at a time.
Reaching commercially relevant logical-qubit counts requires thousands to millions of individually controlled optical channels. No assembly of discrete modulators reaches that scale, and conventional fiber I/O runs out first: the largest fiber-attach ever demonstrated on a photonic package is 256 fibers. The channel count must be generated on chip, from a small number of inputs — which is precisely what a demultiplexing, per-channel-modulating photonic circuit provides.
Piezo-optomechanical photonic integrated circuits, made in a CMOS foundry.
The platform actuates silicon nitride waveguides with thin-film aluminum nitride piezoelectric transducers, steering and modulating light through mechanical motion rather than free-carrier or thermal effects. The result is a modulator technology that operates from the ultraviolet-blue through the near-infrared, functions at cryogenic temperatures, holds its state with negligible static power, and is manufactured on standard 200‑mm CMOS foundry lines.
MechanismPiezo-optomechanical actuation
Aluminum nitride actuators deform photonic structures to modulate phase, amplitude, and frequency — a stress-optic mechanism free of the absorption, hysteresis, and wavelength restrictions that limit competing modulator physics at atomic transition wavelengths.
ManufacturingCMOS-foundry fabrication
Every device in the platform's publication record was fabricated on 200‑mm CMOS foundry processes, and monolithic integration of the photonics with CMOS electronics has been demonstrated — the path to channel counts that assembly can never reach.
SpectrumUltraviolet through infrared
Atomic qubits are addressed at wavelengths spanning the ultraviolet to the infrared. The platform operates from 250 nm to 1064 nm with propagation losses below 1 dB/cm across the range, including published single-circuit performance at 420 nm, 795 nm, and 1013 nm.
EnvironmentCryogenic compatibility
Piezoelectric actuation requires no heaters and no carrier injection. Tunable devices from this platform have been operated at cryogenic temperatures in the peer-reviewed record — compatibility that thermal and free-carrier modulators cannot offer.
Every number below is published. None is a projection.
Selected results from the platform's peer-reviewed and publicly posted record, including a jointly published system validation with QuEra Computing on an eight-channel circuit designed for rubidium-87 neutral-atom quantum computers.
| Result | What it means | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 71.4 ± 1.1 dBextinction ratio, 795 nm | Mean per-channel extinction at the rubidium single-qubit gate wavelength; dynamic extinction below 10−6 in operation. | Zhao et al., arXiv:2508.09920 |
| −68.0 ± 1.0 dBnearest-neighbor crosstalk | On-chip isolation between adjacent channels; −50.8 ± 0.2 dB after parallel free-space delivery. | Zhao et al., arXiv:2508.09920 |
| 3 nsrise time | Single-nanosecond-class switching for atomic gate sequencing. | Stanfield et al., Opt. Express (2019); Dong et al., Nat. Photonics (2022) |
| < 1 dB/cmpropagation loss, 320–1019 nm | Waveguide propagation loss across the ultraviolet-to-infrared band the platform serves. | Castillo et al.; Stanfield et al.; Zhao et al. |
| No degradationtrapped-ion gate fidelity vs. bulk AOMs | Gate set tomography shows no fidelity loss relative to conventional bulk acousto-optic modulators. | Hogle et al., npj QI (2023) |
| 10s of GHzsideband generation | Microwave-frequency sideband generation on visible light — on-chip frequency control of atomic transitions. | Freedman et al., Nat. Commun. (2025) |
| 2,000,000drivers · 140 electrical connections | Monolithically integrated die: channel count set by lithography, not by electrical I/O. | Zimmermann et al., arXiv:2607.01514 |
// Full uncertainty analyses and methods appear in the cited publications.
A technology roadmap extending to millions of channels.
The first-generation system demultiplexes one or a few optical inputs into an array of individually modulated channels, delivered to free space or to the chip edge. Scaling beyond that follows the same trajectory the semiconductor industry has already traveled: co-integration of photonics with drive and control electronics, so that channel count is set by lithography rather than by fibers, wire bonds, or bulk optics.
Monolithic integration of the photonic platform with CMOS electronics has been demonstrated and published. Successive generations extend the architecture toward the channel counts that utility-scale atomic quantum computers will require.
The foundational architecture is patented.
A decade of peer-reviewed results, from device physics to system validation.
The platform was developed openly, in the scientific literature, by the people who now constitute LightlogiQ. Selected publications follow.
Founded by the people who invented the platform.
Matt Eichenfield
Inventor of the piezo-optomechanical photonic architecture. Endowed chair at the University of Colorado Boulder; previously a long research career at Sandia National Laboratories, where the platform originated. Author on every foundational publication of the technology.
Roy H. “Troy” Olsson III
A pioneer of thin-film aluminum nitride piezoelectric MEMS and its post-CMOS integration, and a leading authority on the commercialization of piezoelectric materials — the device physics at the heart of the platform.
Mark Geller
Operating executive with prior founding experience culminating in a $465M acquisition. Leads LightlogiQ's commercial strategy and partnerships with quantum computing hardware companies.
IP licensing and co-development.
LightlogiQ partners with neutral-atom and trapped-ion quantum computing companies through technology licensing and co-development programs, tailoring the photonic control architecture to each partner's qubit species, wavelengths, and system geometry.
Technical discussions beyond the published record are conducted under non-disclosure agreement.
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