Qilimanjaro builds full-stack analog quantum computers based on fluxonium qubits. IPQUANTICS is our project on the next hard step, scaling those processors to more qubits.
The IPQUANTICS project aims to develop scalable processors for analog quantum computing, addressing today’s main scalability challenges. Specifically, it sets out to overcome two key limitations: the constraints inherent to planar architectures and the complexities associated with controlling the devices. To do this, it proposes an innovative approach that spans every stage of the process, from design and fabrication to the testing and control of the chips. This approach represents a significant advance in scientific and technological knowledge, and it marks a crucial step toward the industrialization of quantum processors for practical applications.
Analog quantum computers are one of the most promising near-term routes to problems that classical machines cannot handle efficiently, from simulation to complex optimisation. Scaling to more qubits is the central challenge for every quantum technology, and analog processors are no exception. At Qilimanjaro we build these systems full-stack, based on fluxonium qubits, and IPQUANTICS is our work on that step.
The Scaling Problem
Scaling is hard across quantum computing, and in analog processors it takes a specific form. The qubits are heavily coupled to each other, which makes it hard to control each one on its own. Getting that right takes a deep understanding of the system, which we built through planar designs. On top of that, every qubit needs several control knobs, so many control lines have to run through the chip. That makes routing hard and drives crosstalk and interference between the lines very high. Flip-chip technology mitigates both problems.
IPQUANTICS worked across the full process: design, fabrication, testing, and control.
What We Built
IPQUANTICS targeted the next step in qubit count. We worked on both planar and flip-chip designs, together with the fabrication route and the control hardware.
We designed multilayer unit cells for our fluxonium chips, in both planar and flip-chip versions. Flip-chip stacks circuits in three dimensions instead of one plane. It is used elsewhere in semiconductors, though applying it to analog quantum chips is a different problem. Once a cell works, it can be replicated into larger chips that scale reliably.
We took those designs through fabrication and measured them under real operating conditions, at cryogenic, near-absolute-zero temperatures.
We built our own FPGA-based control electronics to drive the larger number of control lines that scaling needs. This is our own hardware and IP, not an adaptation of digital tooling. It is a research prototype, still well short of production.
Fitting into Qilimanjaro’s Roadmap
Qilimanjaro builds and commercialises full-stack analog quantum computers, from the chip to the software and applications. Selling those systems depends on scaling them to more qubits, which is the problem IPQUANTICS set out to solve. The project produced some of the design methods, the control electronics, and the IP behind the next commercial versions of our QPUs.
The project also fits its funder. IPQUANTICS sits in the “design and development of chips and IP cores” segment of Spain’s microelectronics and semiconductor programme, supported by the Ministry of Industry and Tourism through the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan. The work adds to Europe’s chip value chain and its capacity to build this technology at home.
IPQUANTICS ran from January 2025 to June 2026, establishing a complete, reproducible process for designing, building, and testing scalable analog quantum processors.
