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Scaling Up Quantum Manufacturing
Heather Drabant
November 9, 2025
Writer @ Dynamic Tech Media
If the quantum industry is going to reach its true potential, companies are going to have to build a lot more hardware.
Though it may seem preemptive for this nascent industry, innovators that are beginning to think about and investing in a scalable manufacturing process will have an advantage. This will require designing complex products for at-scale manufacturing, accelerating workforce development, and shoring up fragile supply chains.
This is already happening in Colorado, and Dynamic Tech Media wants our state to become the global leader in quantum fabrication. So, as part of our Quantum Community Forum event series, we gathered leading industry voices at the Beck Venture Center at Colorado School of Mines for a panel discussion on quantum manufacturing.
Quantum Community Forum on Manufacturing
Our expert panelists shared their perspective on the challenges of quantum manufacturing, the current state of play, and what the path forward looks like.
The panelists included:
- Scott Rommel, COO and Cofounder at Vescent Technologies
- Jenna Montague, Director of Optics and Photonics at Front Range Community College and Board Chair of the Colorado Photonics Industry Association (CPIA)
- Conor Delaney, Senior Research R&D Technician at Quantinuum
- David Daniel, Technical Program Manager in the semiconductor industry
- Moderated by Roger Nakagawa, Business Development Representative at Interstates
Read on for insights into how lessons learned from the semiconductor industry could provide valuable insights for scaling quantum manufacturing, why more technicians are qualified to work in quantum than you may think, and how supply chain woes complicate the situation.
Designing Quantum Devices for Manufacturability
Preparing for a scalable manufacturing process starts with mindset. We know that manufacturing complex products at scale is possible—look at how semiconductors are produced, for example. The only question is how to apply a similar repeatable process to quantum tech.
“It starts by making the decision from the get-go that you’re making a product,” said Scott Rommel, COO and cofounder at Vescent. “When you make that product, you design it for manufacturing with folks other than the research staff who initiated that design.”
Most quantum devices today are manufactured with a research-driven mindset. That works for one-off products, but what happens when you’re ready to scale to ten, a hundred, a thousand, or ten thousand devices?
“If you go unchecked with a research approach, then you typically have to scrap the design and redesign it so it can become manufacturable by people other than the research staff,” said Rommel.
Bringing manufacturing-focused engineers into the design process as early as possible can mitigate the risk of having to start from scratch.
What We Can Learn from the Semiconductor Industry
About Scaling Quantum Manufacturing
Early on, semiconductors ran into many of the same challenges quantum manufacturing faces today: lack of specialized equipment and materials, unreliable or niche supply chains, and technical complexities.
One of the main lessons, according to David Daniel, a technical program manager who spent decades scaling up manufacturing at semiconductor companies like Seagate, is the necessity of operational planning over a long time horizon.
“If you add together groundbreaking, building a factory, and qualifying a high-tech process that happens in a clean room, you’re looking at three to six years,” said Daniel. “That’s the best-case scenario, assuming nothing goes wrong and you’re doing it in one country.”
In addition to this operational element, manufacturing breakthroughs in semiconductor fabrication can directly support quantum technology.
For example, quantum companies creating devices like chip-scale sensors and photonic integrated circuits may use processes like wafer deposition and ultraviolet lithography. Existing semiconductor tooling, while not always an exact match for fabricating these devices, can sometimes be adapted or modified to make the switch.
Beyond specific equipment, part of how these companies are achieving repeatability is by working with co-manufacturers and diversifying their supply chain to create a more streamlined production process.
Workforce Development for Quantum Manufacturing
Today, 39% of quantum companies employ more than 100 people, up from just 9% last year. As these companies grow from research-based startups—dominated by PhD researchers—to larger organizations that need to ship a consistent and reliable product to their customers, more hands-on workers are needed.
The people filling these new roles are technicians with experience in optics, photonics, and electronics.
“Optics skills are quantum skills,” said Jenna Montague, Director of Optics and Photonics at Front Range Community College and board chair at Colorado Photonics Industry Association (CPIA).
“I run an optics technician training program. We train highly skilled technicians to build, assemble, and align optical systems that can interface with things like electronic systems and other subsystems. They are experts who can build these things again and again and again.”
Those with experience working on optical equipment, electronics, and other systems are well suited to join the quantum workforce. PhD scientists and engineers should collaborate with these technicians, because they all bring their own unique skillsets to the table.
What Is a Quantum Technician?
Too often, the research staff may be dismissive of a technician’s expertise. However, trusting technicians can save researchers and designers from delays and complications further into development.
“The PhDs need to put a little bit more trust into the tech staff because they have a vision of what needs to be set up and what needs to get done,” said Conor Delaney, Senior R&D Technician at Quantinuum.
“For a while, researchers knew they needed us, but they didn’t really know how to use us. Now, they’re starting to realize that we need these people working in the lab, helping us solve our challenges.”
It’s a common misconception that technicians are simply operators pushing buttons, but that’s not the case. They are uniquely suited to tackle the challenges of scaling quantum manufacturing, and it’s important that they have a seat at the table when building a manufacturing process.
“These technicians are highly skilled people who build things and align laser systems—they know how to work with your hardware,” said Montague.
Technicians have more transferable skills than they may realize, and now is the time for them to explore—through hands-on experience—exactly how their skillsets can support scaling quantum manufacturing.
“Once you start getting your repetition, you know what’s going to work, and you know what’s going to be questionable, and you can get in there and adapt to any lab environment,” said Delaney.
We Need to Talk About Quantum Supply Chains
Quantum tech requires sourcing highly specialized components, and most companies have no choice but to rely on offshore suppliers or small companies for crucial inputs. That makes for a dangerously fragile supply chain.
While governments worldwide have been investing money into quantum computers, they’ve neglected to invest in key components that contribute to a quantum industrial base. Those components, like optics, cryogenics, and lab equipment, are all critical.
“We have to take a look at this quantum supply chain, and maybe out of the billions and billions of dollars we’ve been throwing into making the nice deck on the top of the roof, we should take a small fraction of that and shore up the foundation,” said Vescent CEO Dr. Scott Davis in a recent Dynamic Tech Media article on why the US needs a domestic quantum supply chain.
Most component manufacturing has moved out of the US, with much of it happening in China. This adds a layer of complexity due to tariffs and long wait times for components and equipment.
Quantum Supply Chain Risks
Plus, due to the highly specialized nature of quantum technology, many essential inputs can only be found from a single, sometimes tenuous, source.
“I don’t care what quantum company you’re working with or interacting with. Somewhere, somehow, you are reliant upon a company of less than five people that’s making a critical part of your technology,” said Rommel.
These small companies can’t invest in at-scale manufacturing yet because their customers, those building quantum devices, don’t provide enough demand and haven’t yet standardized across the industry. This means that it can take months to receive a shipment.
Add crushing tariffs into the mix, and quantum companies often can’t afford to scale up their manufacturing.
Daniel offered a potential way forward, based on his experience in semiconductor manufacturing: “presenting to your supply base a compelling product roadmap to get them to manage some of that risk for your company. Give them an incentive to want to produce stuff at a lower cost for you, and put in place purchase agreements that can buffer you from the impact of tariffs.”
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Colorado Should Lead the Quantum Manufacturing Scale-Up in the US
Our state is home to the largest cluster of quantum tech companies in the country, with many of them focusing on building hardware. We have an incredible ecosystem, unparalleled talent, and top-notch academics.
Now it’s up to our local industry to accelerate scale-up and compete on the world stage.
This starts with creating alignment. Just like the PhDs and technicians who build these devices need to have a mutual understanding, our larger quantum business community also needs to connect and collaborate.
“To get everyone on board and to understand why quantum is this important exploding industry, we all need to speak the same language,” said Montague.
The more we collaborate, the stronger we’ll be.
Whether that means leveraging knowledge from semiconductor manufacturing, leaning into transferable tech skills, or diversifying supply chains, scaling quantum manufacturing is possible in Colorado.
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