## Are Quobly and Orange Quantum Systems Solving Quantum Computing's Scaling Bottleneck?

One million qubits by 2032. That is Quobly's stated target, and the French silicon spin qubit startup is now confronting the engineering reality that stands between today's lab devices and that ambition: you cannot scale what you cannot test.

Quobly and Orange Quantum Systems (OrangeQS) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding, formalized in Eindhoven, to develop automated testing and characterization capabilities specifically for silicon spin qubits fabricated on Quobly's 300mm FD-SOI (Fully Depleted Silicon-on-Insulator) platform. The MOU signing took place during a Franco-Dutch working lunch on "Bridging the Tech Gap" attended by both nations' heads of government — an unusual diplomatic backdrop that signals how seriously France and the Netherlands are treating quantum and semiconductor co-development as a strategic priority.

The core problem the partnership addresses is mundane but critical: as qubit counts grow, manually probing individual devices becomes the dominant bottleneck. Quobly brings its 300mm FD-SOI device specifications and test wafers; OrangeQS — based in Delft and specializing in automated diagnostics and high-throughput test systems — brings its established automated testing infrastructure, including its OrangeQS MAX platform. Together, they aim to build measurement methodologies capable of systematically characterizing how [gate fidelity](https://quantumintel.tech/glossary/gate-fidelity) and [coherence time](https://quantumintel.tech/glossary/coherence-time) vary across entire wafers and production batches.

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## Why 300mm FD-SOI Is a Strategic Bet Worth Scrutinizing

Quobly's manufacturing approach is the most commercially legible element of its strategy. FD-SOI is a mature CMOS process node — the same foundry infrastructure used to produce chips for automotive and mobile applications. Fabricating spin qubits on 300mm wafers means Quobly can, in principle, leverage existing semiconductor fab capacity rather than building bespoke quantum fabrication lines from scratch.

This is a deliberate divergence from approaches that rely on highly customized deposition and etching processes. The tradeoff is real: standard CMOS processes were not designed to hit the material purity levels and interface quality that spin qubits demand for high [coherence time](https://quantumintel.tech/glossary/coherence-time). Quobly's argument — implicit in CEO Maud Vinet's public positioning — is that the manufacturability advantage outweighs the materials compromises, particularly if yield and uniformity can be characterized and controlled systematically.

That "if" is precisely what this OrangeQS partnership is designed to address. Vinet stated plainly: "That means solving the engineering challenges behind the qubit as seriously as we solve the qubit itself." It is the kind of statement that rarely appears in quantum press releases, and it signals a company genuinely grappling with the gap between physics demonstrations and production reality.

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## What OrangeQS MAX Brings to the Table

OrangeQS has positioned itself as infrastructure-layer for the silicon qubit ecosystem — the automated probe station equivalent for quantum hardware. The OrangeQS MAX system, referenced by Executive Director Garrelt Alberts in his statement, is designed specifically for high-throughput characterization of qubit devices.

Alberts was direct about the timing: "The rapid advances in spin qubit technology have moved the industry to a point where automated testing is no longer a future requirement but an immediate necessity."

That framing is notable. It implies OrangeQS believes the silicon spin qubit field has crossed a threshold where device throughput — the number of qubits that can be characterized per unit time — is now the pacing constraint, not qubit physics. For a company selling test infrastructure, this is an obvious pitch. But it is also independently credible: the semiconductor industry learned this lesson decades ago, and quantum hardware developers are reaching the same inflection point.

For OrangeQS, the Quobly partnership provides access to an advanced 300mm FD-SOI spin qubit platform and alignment with a company explicitly targeting industrial-scale production. That is a meaningful reference customer and development partner, even at MOU stage.

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## Industry Context: The Testing Gap Is Real

The challenge Quobly and OrangeQS are addressing is not unique to silicon spin qubits. Every major physical qubit modality — superconducting transmon, trapped ion, [neutral atom](https://quantumintel.tech/glossary/neutral-atom-qubit) — faces analogous characterization scaling problems as physical qubit counts grow. What differentiates the silicon spin qubit case is the proximity to semiconductor manufacturing norms, where wafer-level testing and statistical process control are standard practice.

[Intel Quantum](https://quantumintel.tech/companies/intel), with its own silicon spin qubit program, has access to internal fab infrastructure for this reason. Quobly, as a startup, does not have that luxury — making the OrangeQS partnership a necessary external solution to what Intel can address internally.

The broader industry implication: as silicon spin qubit programs mature, the ecosystem of enabling infrastructure — test systems, control electronics, cryogenic packaging — will increasingly determine which programs can scale and which stall. Partnerships like this one are the supply chain forming in real time.

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## What This MOU Does Not Tell Us

A Memorandum of Understanding is a statement of intent, not a contract with deliverables. The source material does not disclose financial terms, a timeline for testing milestones, or the current [gate fidelity](https://quantumintel.tech/glossary/gate-fidelity) and T1/T2 coherence performance Quobly is achieving on its 300mm FD-SOI devices. Those numbers — specifically, how Quobly's spin qubits perform relative to academic silicon spin qubit records — would be the most informative data points for evaluating whether the 2032 one-million-qubit roadmap is credible or aspirational positioning.

Quobly's scaling target is aggressive by any measure. Reaching one million physical qubits on a silicon platform by 2032 would require not just fabrication at scale but demonstrated yield, reproducible qubit performance across wafers, and a control electronics stack capable of addressing that many qubits — none of which is addressed in this MOU. The partnership solves one piece of a very large puzzle.

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## Key Takeaways

- **Quobly and OrangeQS have signed an MOU** to develop automated testing and characterization for silicon spin qubits on Quobly's 300mm FD-SOI platform.
- **The OrangeQS MAX system** will be adapted for spin qubit characterization, addressing wafer-level and batch-level performance variation.
- **Quobly's 2032 target of one million qubits** makes high-throughput automated testing a near-term engineering necessity, not a future concern.
- **The MOU was signed in Eindhoven** at a Franco-Dutch governmental event, reflecting bilateral strategic interest in quantum-semiconductor convergence.
- **Key unknowns remain:** current qubit performance metrics, yield rates on the 300mm platform, and financial or timeline commitments are not disclosed in source material.
- **Industry signal:** silicon spin qubit programs are entering the phase where test infrastructure, not just qubit physics, paces progress — mirroring semiconductor industry history.

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## Frequently Asked Questions

**What is the Quobly and Orange Quantum Systems partnership about?**
Quobly and OrangeQS have signed an MOU to collaboratively develop automated testing and characterization methods for silicon spin qubits. Quobly contributes its 300mm FD-SOI spin qubit devices and test wafers; OrangeQS contributes its OrangeQS MAX automated test infrastructure. The goal is to enable high-throughput, reproducible qubit qualification at industrial scale.

**What is FD-SOI and why does Quobly use it?**
FD-SOI, or Fully Depleted Silicon-on-Insulator, is a mature CMOS process technology used in commercial semiconductor manufacturing. Quobly fabricates its silicon spin qubits on a 300mm FD-SOI platform to leverage existing foundry infrastructure, enabling scaling toward industrial qubit production without requiring entirely bespoke fabrication lines.

**What is Quobly's qubit count target and when?**
Quobly has stated a target of one million qubits by 2032, which it believes is achievable through semiconductor-style manufacturing integration on the 300mm FD-SOI platform.

**What is OrangeQS MAX?**
OrangeQS MAX is Orange Quantum Systems' automated high-throughput test system for quantum devices. The collaboration with Quobly is intended to optimize it specifically for spin qubit characterization at wafer and batch scale.

**How does this partnership compare to what Intel is doing in silicon spin qubits?**
[Intel Quantum](https://quantumintel.tech/companies/intel) has internal foundry access for silicon spin qubit development and testing. Quobly, as an independent startup, lacks that internal infrastructure — making the OrangeQS partnership the external equivalent of what Intel can address in-house. The Quobly approach demonstrates that a third-party test infrastructure ecosystem is forming around silicon spin qubits.