Xanadu and Corning Incorporated have announced a strategic collaboration to co-develop customized low-loss optical fibre and fibre-array solutions for networking photonic quantum computing chips. The joint effort will leverage Xanadu’s expertise in ultra-low-loss photonic chip components and Corning’s advanced innovations in optical fibre to enable fault-tolerant, utility-scale photonic quantum computing. The goal is to address critical interconnect challenges for scaling architectures like Xanadu’s recently demonstrated Aurora quantum system.
The effort builds on Xanadu’s recent demonstration of Aurora, a 35-chip fibre-networked photonic quantum system using 13 kilometers of optical fibre, as reported in Nature. While Aurora establishes the architectural foundation for scaling to fault-tolerant quantum computing, reducing optical losses in fibre interconnects remains a key challenge. The partnership with Corning aims to co-develop specialized components optimized for low-loss coupling between photonic chips and fibre, a critical requirement for scaling Aurora beyond its current 12-qubit configuration.
Through this collaboration, Corning will apply its fibre manufacturing expertise to co-develop fibre and array solutions specifically engineered for Xanadu’s photonic integrated circuits. By jointly addressing loss at the component level, the companies aim to further the development of scalable photonic quantum computing infrastructure and support Xanadu’s long-term vision of building a universal, fault-tolerant quantum computer.
For more information, read the full announcement here and the Nature paper here.
March 26, 2025
