Staying cool: the cryogenic infrastructure behind the Midwest’s quantum ecosystem

Atoms and molecules are constantly moving and vibrating — if, that is, they’re at a temperature above absolute zero, the theoretical rock bottom at which particles essentially stop moving.

This slowdown gives researchers and engineers the level of control they need to manipulate fragile quantum systems, harnessing them to create cutting-edge technology that could transform how we run our cities, fight disease, navigate planes and ships, secure our information, and even explore profound questions about how the world works.

In other words, cryogenics, the science of producing and working at low temperatures, is foundational to much of the quantum ecosystem. And the Midwest, already a globally recognized leader in quantum technology, is a growing hub for this specialized equipment, which includes the chandelier-like dilution refrigerators often associated with quantum computing.

“The Midwest’s expanding cryogenic infrastructure is enabling and accelerating our growth as a leading zone for quantum innovation, making us a destination for quantum companies who need access to super-cooling,” said David Awschalom, the University of Chicago’s Liew Family Professor of Molecular Engineering and Physics, a senior scientist at Argonne National Lab, and the founding director of the Chicago Quantum Exchange. “The growing demand for this equipment, in turn, is making the Midwest a destination for cryo companies and facilities. This is good news for startups, and it’s good news for our regional economy. As cryo capacity grows, there will be more jobs for technicians and engineers trained to operate and maintain this equipment.”

Earlier this year, the CQE-led Bloch Quantum Tech Hub helped bring Bluefors — the world leader in manufacturing dilution refrigerators and cryogenic measurement systems for quantum technology — to Chicago-based mHUB, marking the first US location for the Bluefors Lab Service. The new facility offers startups, research groups, and other organizations access to a cryogenic measurement system through a service-based model.

“The collaboration and the ecosystem in this region are definitely on another level,” said Sauli Sinisalo, vice president and general manager at the Bluefors US headquarters in Brooklyn, New York. Bluefors global headquarters is located in Finland. “The universities, the national labs, and all the companies growing from that ecosystem — it made it an easy choice for us to be there.”

Cryogenic capacity was part of the draw for quantum computing company and CQE corporate partner PsiQuantum, which announced last year that it will anchor the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park (IQMP) to be built on the Southeast Side of Chicago. The IQMP, a first-of-its-kind campus for quantum scale-up, will include an industrial -scale cryogenic plant accessible to tenants of the park. 

Even before these developments, the Midwest had a deep bench of expertise in cryogenics, including Ohio-based CQE corporate partner Lake Shore Cryotronics, which was founded in 1968, and the US Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois. Fermilab’s original core focus — particle physics — has used large-scale cryogenics for decades.  

“More and more we see executives and companies that want to come out and look at our test facilities and our cryo capability specifically for quantum applications, and you can tell there's a ton of interest in scaling up their systems,” said Ben Hansen, director of the Cryogenic Technology Division at Fermilab. “Everybody is thinking about this now, and they're all moving toward that goal and trying to understand how they're going to get there.”

Scott Yano, chief technology officer at Lake Shore, said that they, too, have seen growing interest in cryo as quantum technology has started to boom. 

“About a decade ago, we saw the world starting to pull away from cryogenics,” he said, “and now everyone wants to leverage cryo to develop quantum technology.”

Workforce opportunities

Early in quantum technology’s development, one dilution refrigerator was all a research laboratory would need. Now, as companies like PsiQuantum work to commercialize quantum computing at large scales, they also need to increase cryogenic capacity. Fermilab’s expertise is being applied in the development of IQMP facilities. 

“There has been research in quantum computing for decades, and up until now has been primarily benchtop experiments,” Hansen said. “Now companies are getting to the point where they want to expand their quantum computing technology to build it at the scale of a data center, and at that point it becomes more efficient to use an industrial-scale helium cryogenic plant.”

A big plant, of course, needs a big workforce.

“That's the other challenge with building these large, central cryogenic plants with complicated distribution systems — there's currently limited workforce and expertise available,” Hansen said. “There are only a few universities that have any cryogenic classes, and few formal training programs, so a lot of it is on-the-job training through places like national labs … our practice has been to mostly hire early career people and build our workforce from the ground up.”

The Chicago Quantum Exchange and its director of education and workforce development, Emily Easton, aim to change this. Some of the undergraduate fellows who participate in the CQE-led Open Quantum Initiative have opportunities to work on dilution refrigerators during their summer research fellowships in quantum laboratories. The CQE also engaged manufacturers, including those working with cryogenics, to expand workforce development and commercialization efforts across the region as part of a National Science Foundation Regional Innovation Engines Development Award. (That CQE-led coalition, Quantum Connected, is now a semifinalist for an NSF Engine award that would leverage regional strengths to advance the nation’s cyber and communication security).

Easton also co-leads workforce development at the IQMP alongside Greg Feltman, a senior advisor for the park. Easton and Feltman are developing a pilot program focused on aligning training with the specific needs of quantum employers, beginning with cryogenic roles.

“The people that maintain cryogenic systems already are in high demand, and we expect availability of these jobs to rise exponentially in the Illinois-Wisconsin-Indiana region over the next decade,” Easton said. “This represents a huge need for our sector — and a huge opportunity for the community. To make sure we are ready, we’re working with employers to clearly define the common skills they will need as our cryogenic capacity expands. This will enable us to efficiently and effectively scale workforce development programs that prepare future workers for the specific jobs that will be — and already are — available.”

Cryogenic roles span a range of levels from technicians and cryoplant operators (jobs that generally require associates degrees or high school diplomas) to cryogenic mechanical engineers (jobs that require bachelor’s degrees) to cryogenic systems engineers (jobs that generally require graduate degrees).

“Facilities like Bluefors Lab Service that are accessible to startups and researchers are key to developing a healthy, sustainable ecosystem — that’s why it was such a big deal when they chose the Midwest.,” said CQE CEO Kate Timmerman. “If we want to realize our region’s quantum potential, we need to make sure our innovators have the access to the tools they need.” 

Cryo: From Classical to Quantum

Cryogenics has long had a place in scientific research, but its relevance has skyrocketed with the emergence of quantum technology. 

Lake Shore Cryotronics has spent decades making sensors and instrumentation for use in ultra-cold environments. Classical electronics engineers use cryogenics to slow down electron flow, allowing them to study and improve their devices with precision.

“When people are trying to make new developments and push the boundaries, they always start cold and work their way up,” said Scott Yano, chief technology officer at Lake Shore. “Now with the emergence of quantum, it’s even more important, because it’s the only way some of these technologies can work.”

Yano has been with Lake Shore for 20 years, and he said he’s seen an explosion of the quantum industry. 

“About 10 years ago, we were really worried that our sales were declining, because it seemed like physics universities throughout the world were not wanting to fund cryogenic systems,” he said. “The cost of liquid helium was going up, cryogenic systems are expensive, and basic fundamental research is difficult. We even considered adding a focus on higher-temperature instrumentation, like for electric vehicles or engines. And then quantum happened, and the whole world just went cold.”

Something unique about quantum, Yano said, is it is pushing cryo out of the typical lab to companies: large companies like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, for example, but also startup ventures and component companies. Lake Shore is also seeing a reversal of what had been its usual focus for decades.

“In addition to the significant work happening down at the millikelvin level, on the quantum side, there's a lot of push to put more qubit control electronics inside the dilution refrigerator,” he said. “It's the opposite of our historical business: researchers would start cold and try to make it work warm — now we've got companies trying to take what worked well warm and make it work cold.”  

Bluefors is already seeing demand for its facility in Chicago, which includes a Bluefors LD400 dilution refrigerator equipped with a suite of various technologies and accessories specifically aimed at quantum technology. It’s a setup that Sinisalo likened to a “Swiss Army knife of cryogenics.”

Quantum startups and research teams can rent time on the dilution refrigerator and work alongside Bluefors experts, making it possible to test and prototype quantum devices without having to invest in their own expensive infrastructure.

The announcement, Sinisalo said, prompted interest from across the country.

“There were a lot of people, of course, from the Chicago and Illinois area, but also from around the US,” he said. “People and researchers who may not otherwise have access to a dilution refrigerator, or the ones they have are booked for other purposes; this lab concept gives you the opportunity to do something that is maybe outside normal routines.”