Programmable light processors, built for the quantum era.
Q-Memory designs programmable, room-temperature photonic processors: chips that steer and mix light under software control. We build them for quantum research labs today and quantum data centers tomorrow, with classical optical processing alongside.
What we are building
A photonic processor is a network of tiny light paths on a chip. Where paths meet, a tunable interferometer decides how much light goes each way. Set all of them from software and the chip performs a chosen operation on the light passing through. Change the settings and it performs a different one, on the same chip.
Room temperature
The processor chip needs no cryostat. Single-photon detectors, where an experiment uses them, still need a compact cooler.
Programmable
One chip, many experiments, reconfigured in software.
Made with chip-industry methods
Wafer-scale lithography on a low-loss material that is well established for photonics.
A memory layer for light
Today’s programmable photonic chips hold each setting by continuously heating a small part of the chip. That costs power, produces heat, and makes the chip drift.
Our patent-pending memory layer is designed to hold settings at near-zero power, for processors that are more stable and lower-power, which matters when many chips share a rack.
It is not part of the first test chip. The first chip proves the processor platform the memory layer will sit on.
Where the work stands
4
light channels in the Phase 1 programmable test chip
Design
3
go/no-go tests the Phase 1 chip must pass before Phase 2 starts
Design
June 2026
UK patent application filed. Patent pending, not yet granted.
On record
Every figure on this site says how we know it.
- Design
- A property of our chip design.
- On record
- A matter of public record.
A roadmap gated by measurements
Each phase starts only when the chip before it passes its measured go/no-go tests. We do not skip ahead.
Phase 1: first test chip
A four-channel programmable light processor that proves the platform works as well as the simulations say.
Phase 2: larger processor for quantum research labs
A room-temperature processor designed toward rack integration.
Phase 3 and beyond: toward quantum data centers
Processors for quantum data centers, and classical optical processing on the same platform.
Follow the build
We send an update when a milestone is reached, and we publish results whatever they show.