MicroAlign Secures €2.5M to Scale Quantum Hardware Components
Finnish deeptech company MicroAlign received a €2.5 million grant from the European Innovation Council to industrialize its quantum fiber array production. The company's micro-manipulation technology is a critical component for building and scaling photonic quantum computers. The funding highlights the strategic importance of developing robust hardware supply chains for the quantum computing industry.
- MicroAlign is a 2021 spin-off from the Eindhoven University of Technology, originating from CEO Simone Cardarelli's PhD research that began in 2015 on fiber-to-chip connections. This grant follows a €1 million seed round in June 2024 led by DeepTechXL and PhotonVentures and a €350K funding round in September 2025. - The company’s core intellectual property is a patented MEMS-based technology for "active alignment" of optical fibers. Unlike conventional "passive alignment" using V-grooves which has an accuracy of ~0.5 microns, MicroAlign's micro-actuators position each fiber individually with sub-100 nanometer accuracy, reducing photon loss at the chip interface. - The EIC Accelerator program is specifically designed to support deep-tech and high-risk SMEs that struggle to attract private investment alone. The funding consists of a grant component of up to €2.5 million for development (TRL 5-8) and an equity component of up to €15 million for scaling (TRL 9). - A single large-scale photonic quantum computer is expected to require thousands of these high-precision fiber arrays. Nanometer-scale misalignments cause significant photon loss, which is a critical bottleneck in building larger and more reliable quantum systems. - The new funding is earmarked for industrializing production, with plans for a 500-square-meter facility by 2026 capable of producing up to 100,000 fiber arrays annually. This addresses a key supply chain need as quantum computing moves towards commercialization. - In December 2025, the company doubled the channel density of its arrays from the industry standard of 12 to 24 channels while maintaining 100-nanometer accuracy. For 2026, MicroAlign plans to further miniaturize its platform to support channel pitches down to 127 μm for higher-density photonic systems. - While quantum computing is the initial target market, the technology has direct applications in other high-performance sectors like MEMS switches, optical amplifiers, and wavelength-selective switches that require optical coupling loss below 0.5 dB.
