Jülich commissions JION trapped-ion quantum computer

On Thursday, the JION trapped-ion quantum computer was officially commissioned at the Jülich Research Centre. North Rhine-Westphalia Premier Hendrik Wüst called the system a “milestone in technology.” It is intended to provide science and industry with computing power that combines classical high-performance computers and quantum computers.

JION stores information in ionized ytterbium atoms. Electromagnetic fields hold the charged atoms in place in a vacuum and control them for computation. This distinguishes the approach from superconducting systems: The quantum processor does not have to operate at temperatures close to absolute zero. JION uses the MAGIC technology developed in Siegen for control. It uses microwaves and deliberately generated magnetic-field gradients to control individual qubits and connect them directly to one another.

Access is provided through JUNIQ, the research centre’s modular quantum computing infrastructure. It brings together different quantum systems and connects them to the HPC infrastructure of the Jülich Supercomputing Centre—that is, to classical high-performance computers. For selected tasks, these computers will be able to offload individual operations to a quantum system. Jülich cites optimization in logistics, transportation and process engineering, as well as physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, materials research and machine learning, among the potential applications.

JION is operational but has not yet been fully expanded. Initially, only a few qubits will be available; the number is expected to rise to ten qubits by mid-2027. The supplier is Eleqtron of Siegen, a spin-off from the University of Siegen founded in 2020. In 2024, the company and its partners had already delivered the QSea demonstrator, with ten qubits, to the German Aerospace Center in Hamburg.

While JION is starting today with only a few qubits, the next projects are targeting larger systems: SQALING is intended to advance trapped-ion technology toward chip-based platforms with up to around €25 million in funding from the EU through the EFRE/JTF program in North Rhine-Westphalia; JION+ with 40 qubits is scheduled for mid-2028. A further €35 million in funding is going to Q-STAR.NRW, which aims to procure and integrate a scalable semiconductor quantum computer into JUNIQ; a system with up to 200 qubits is planned.