UK National Foundry for Quantum Components (QFoundry)

The UK is building the world’s first open-access foundry dedicated to manufacturing quantum semiconductor components. Quantum technologies—from ultra-secure communications to powerful sensors—depend on tiny, precise light sources and detectors. Currently, these components are made in small batches by specialist labs, which is slow, expensive, and inconsistent. QFoundry aims to solve this by adapting standard semiconductor manufacturing techniques to mass-produce two critical devices: single-mode Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (VCSELs) and single-photon emitters and detectors built from quantum dots and multiple quantum wells. If successful, QFoundry will create a reliable, open-access supply chain for these components, from design through to packaged devices. This would allow UK companies and researchers to buy consistent, high-quality quantum parts off the shelf, rather than building them from scratch. The impact would ripple through communications infrastructure, navigation systems, and medical diagnostics—anywhere that needs precise control of individual photons. By consolidating existing UK supply chains and developing methods for high-uniformity manufacturing, the project addresses a bottleneck that currently keeps quantum technologies in the lab rather than in the field.