University of Colorado Boulder - Department of Electrical, Computer & Energy Engineering

New Capabilities

Leading CMOS photonics research for quantum computing

Quantum computers could help with drug discovery, codebreaking and materials science, but only if they grow from dozens of quantum bits (qubits) to millions. The bottleneck is control: each qubit needs precisely steered light or microwaves, and thousands of cables run into refrigerators colder than deep space. Chipmakers are trying to move that control hardware onto standard production lines, as CU Boulder's December 2025 optical modulator did.

Updated Nov 1