Headline

Europe tunnels 4.8 million into Qblox’s quantum control systems

Paul van Gerven

23 December 2020

Quantum computing startup Qblox has been awarded 4.8 million euros in funding from the European Commission Accelerator program. The spinoff from Qutech was among the less than 1 percent of deep-tech startups who got their application granted.

Qblox develops scalable and modular control stacks for quantum computers. Integrating several functions into one device, the company squeezes some bulky equipment into a handy little box, offering scalability, ultra-low signal noise and low latency feedback. The control system is compatible with several types of quantum computers.

Last July, Qblox also received a capital injection from the Uniiq investment fund.

Yes, Agile short cycles also work in high-tech development

Developing innovative high-tech equipment is a daunting challenge, especially for startups and scale-ups. Solid systems engineering and lots of organizing are required when working with partners from different fields of expertise (which is almost always the case). Generating new ideas and validating them in your next prototype can take a lot of time. And there is always the risk of drowning in specifications, procedures and organizational issues. But your engineers want to engineer! The solution? Do it Agile! Surprisingly, an Agile approach with short development cycles will also work in high-tech development. The key is taking smaller steps, dividing the components into really small functional units, which can be either software, programmable logic, electronics or mechanics. Next, project partners quickly build and develop these units in a parallel process or they can employ third parties such as prototyping services to do this. Finally, hardware and software units are integrated into a working prototype, ready to be tested. This way, the short cycles generate quick and frequent feedback on product feasibility. With an Agile approach to high-tech development, it becomes much easier to keep the focus on the technical development of the next prototype. It allows all partners to concentrate on building the best possible components. This talk will highlight the advantages of Agile high-tech development, using as an example real-life cases, such as the development of crucial components for a multi-beam scanning electron microscope.

Remco Jager is a project manager at Technolution Advance, a company that supports startups, scale-ups, and leading innovative manufacturers to bring advanced, innovative ideas to market quickly. Building upon 18 years of experience with the development of solutions for the semiconductor industry, Jager realizes cutting-edge innovations for a wide range of customers in high tech. He has a broad and detailed technical understanding and a talent for creating overview and shaping processes.

TROPOMI: From a kitchen table idea to a world renowned atmospheric chemistry instrument

In his presentation Bryan de Goeij will focus on the early development phases of the TROPOMI instrument. The TROPOMI instrument was successfully launched on board of the Sentinel 5 Precursor satellite on 13 October 2017. Since its launch TROPOMI has delivered NO₂, CH₄, O₃, CO₂ and other trace gasses concentration maps with unprecedented spatial resolution of 7x7km². In this way new and unknown sources of greenhouse gasses were found and our insight in the climate change improved.
He will start by discussing the architecture phase, were the needs and wishes of the atmospheric scientist were identified and transformed into an opto-mechanical architecture. As part of this phase also a number of new technologies were identified and their development started.
Next Bryan will discuss the transformation of the program from the architecture phase into the next design and development phase. He will focus on the selection process of the new technologies that would continue in the next program phase and he will discuss the challenges in moving to a firm fixed price project.

Were appropriate Bryan will highlight the differences between the development process implemented in TROPOMI and the process as defined in the ESA ECSS (European Cooperation for Space Standardization) handbooks.

Before joining TNO Bryan de Goeij graduated at the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering at the TU Delft, in the field of systems integration of spacecraft. At TNO he is now a senior systems engineer with a drive for developing cutting edge opto-mechatronical space systems and for spreading the systems engineering method to other fields within TNO.

His past responsibilities include the development of the Fine Sun Sensors that allow the ESA GAIA satellite to determine it orientation during its mission to chart a three-dimensional map of our Galaxy, the development optical instruments for atmospheric research and global climate monitoring (like TROPOMI) and the development of laser satellite communication systems for aircraft.

Presently he is involved in TNO program to develop small cost-efficient and recurring optical instruments for atmospheric research that fit on small cube satellites, adding additional constraints to the entire SE development process.
At the same time he is involved in the further industrialization and upscaling of hydrogen production facilities.

The engineering of the James Webb Space Telescope European Instruments: challenges, lessons learned and successes

Precision, sensitive, space-borne instrumentation developments are complex endeavours requiring both specific technical knowledge as well as a fine level of systems engineering (SE) processes definition and control. When faced with additional technical, organizational and operational constraints, the solution space shrinks while the SE effort needs to grow and become more creative to address the challenges that appear.
The JWST project fits clearly this definition. In this talk we will present some of the main challenges encountered in the design, testing and deployment of the European contribution to the JWST instrument suite, the Near Infrared Spectrometer (NIRSpec) and the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). We will try to cover both engineering and organization elements and the lessons learned for aspects like: the limitations to design and test cryogenic instrumentation; the benefits and difficulties of working concurrently with industrial partners, research institutes, universities and different space agencies; and the constraints imposed by projects with lifetimes in excess of 10 years before even starting operations. Although JWST is probably an outlier in science space projects in terms of size and complexity, the return from experience, positive and negative, can be applied to future missions and projects with similar boundary conditions.

A Telecommunications Engineering by education, with a focus on optoelectronic systems, I worked as a Passive Photonic Specialist and as Optical System Designer in different companies before joining the European Space Agency in 2005. Since then I have developed my professional activity in Systems Engineering roles within the Science Projects department with a focus on the mission and payload aspects of space telescope missions in the visible, near and mid-infrared. I held the roles of Systems Engineer and Instrument Manager for the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) in the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) mission until integration in the spacecraft in 2012. From 2012 to 2018 I was the Mission Systems Engineer for the dark-matter Euclid mission and in 2018 I took my current position as Mission and Payload manager for the PLAnetary Transit and Oscillation (PLATO) project. In addition to these roles, I am active in the Systems Engineering area development in ESA, contributing to the definition of SE training programs and in the development of Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) practices). I am a member of the Dutch chapter of INCOSE.

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