Quantum Computing News

Kiutra Gets €13 Million to Use Helium-3-Free Cooling to Strengthen Quantum Supply Chains

Cryogenic cooling systems specialist Kiutra, known as the world’s top supplier of magnetic cooling for quantum technologies, has closed a €13 million ($15.2 million USD) equity round. With this fresh round of finance, the company now has over €30 million in total support from both public and private sources.

The money is meant to improve the company’s delivery of helium-3-free cooling systems, which are expected to increase the durability of quantum supply chains, and to hasten its worldwide scale-up.

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Specifics of the Investment and Its Strategic Value

New foreign investors 55 North (Denmark) and NovaCapital (Italy) co-led the funding round. High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) (Germany) and other current backers also contributed significantly. The investment shows that institutions and investors have a great deal of faith in Kiutra’s goal of developing sustainable cryogenic infrastructure for quantum technologies.

For Kiutra, this investment represents a significant turning point as it moves from an R&D-driven startup to a worldwide industrial scale-up. The new private funding will speed up the company’s research even more. In 2024, the company received a €4 million EIC grant to further grow its business.

Resolving the Bottleneck in the Helium-3 Supply Chain

A major obstacle is the lack of dependable and sustainable cryogenic infrastructure as quantum technology ecosystems spread quickly throughout Europe and its partner countries. For ultra-low-temperature operation, many existing systems rely on limited and politically sensitive helium-3 resources. Major projects, such as the EU and NATO Transatlantic Quantum Community, have identified this reliance as a crucial supply chain risk.

This risk is mitigated by Kiutra’s exclusive magnetic cooling method, which completely avoids helium-3. In order to achieve the necessary ultra-low temperatures, the technique instead makes use of solid-state materials that are regulated by magnetisation and demagnetisation.

With this innovative strategy, the company now provides the quickest cooling systems on the market, giving clients a significant speed and usability edge.

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Growth and Upcoming Initiatives

Globally established and validated in the market, Kiutra’s platforms assist top research institutes, businesses, and quantum startups with the creation and quality control of quantum hardware.

The business is currently growing its portfolio to include extremely versatile and potent systems in order to build on this market success. These platforms are especially designed for full-stack quantum computers and sophisticated quantum processors.

According to Kiutra’s CEO and co-founder, Dr. Alexander Regnat, the additional funding will help the company grow internationally and advance its line of “easy-to-use and scalable cooling solutions that are vital for the rapidly growing quantum ecosystem.”

Views of Investors

Investors highlighted Kiutra‘s function as a vital facilitator of the quantum market:

• Kiutra is “perfectly positioned to create value for one of the most critically required enablers in quantum computing: reliable, scalable, and affordable access to cooling power,” according to Dr. Michael Jobst, investor at 55 North, which is the recently launched, largest pure-play quantum fund in the world. “Strongly differentiated from the mainstream market” is another statement he made about their product line.
• Kiutra’s scalable magnetic cooling technology was referred to as “not only foundational for quantum tech but also exemplifies the kind of deep tech leadership Europe needs” by Carlo Germano Ravina, MD at NovaCapital.
• Christian Ziach, HTGF Principal, came to the conclusion that the funding round emphasises cryogen-free cooling’s critical importance for scaling quantum technology. He emphasised that the solution enhances Europe’s technical sovereignty and is “essential for enabling real-world quantum applications”.

Making cryogenics easier, safer, and more scalable, Kiutra is opening up ultra-low-temperature technology to more people, which will allow it to be widely used on a commercial scale. By strengthening the durability and sovereignty of European and allied quantum supply chains, the ground-breaking technology guarantees that quantum innovations may go from laboratory promise to corporate application without major material impediments.

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Helium-3-Free cryogenics

Cooling systems that attain ultra-low (sub-Kelvin or millikelvin) temperatures without Helium-3 are called “helium-3-free cryogenics”. This crucial breakthrough is driven by the quantum technology industry’s high needs, such as quantum computing and sophisticated sensors.

The Helium-3 Issue

Conventionally, He-based methods attain temperatures a fraction of a degree above absolute zero.

Dilution Refrigerators: These machines mix liquid He with Helium-4 to reach Earth’s lowest temperatures (a few mK).

He-3 Evaporation Refrigerators: Evaporating He produces 300 mK temperatures.

Dependence on He-3 poses a number of issues:

• Cost and Scarcity: He is not easily found on Earth. It is an uncommon isotope that is mostly created as a byproduct of tritium decay, which is limited and generated in nuclear reactors. Because of this, its supply is limited and extremely expensive.
• Supply Chain Risk: As demands for quantum technology increase, agencies like the EU and NATO have drawn attention to the substantial supply chain bottleneck and risk that comes with relying on a limited, frequently government-controlled resource.
• Complexity: Making use of He entails expensive expenses, intricate infrastructure, and security issues.

The Solution Without Helium-3: Magnetic Cooling

He-free systems use closed-cycle, alternative technologies to replace gas-isotope refrigeration. Magnetic refrigeration, more especially Adiabatic Demagnetisation Refrigeration (ADR) or its continuous form, continuous ADR (cADR), is the most widely used alternative. Magnetic cooling uses the magnetocaloric effect in specific solid-state materials (magnetic salts or paramagnetic solids) as an alternative to gas.

The Operation of Magnetic Cooling (ADR/cADR)

The steps of the process are as follows:

• Pre-cooling Stage: The system is initially cooled to a few Kelvin or tens of Kelvin from room temperature. A closed-cycle refrigerator, typically a mechanical one, such as a pulse tube cryocooler, is used to accomplish this. This step establishes the required base temperature for the magnetic chilling stage without the use of cryogens, such as liquid helium.
• ADR/cADR Magnetic Cooling Stage: The extremely low temperature drop is provided by this stage.
  • Magnetisation (Warming): A powerful magnetic field is applied to the magnetic substance (cooling medium). Heat is produced as a result of the internal magnetic moments being aligned. Either a heat sink or the pre-cooling phase must remove this heat.
  • The magnetic field is demagnetised (cooled) in an adiabatic (heat-insulated) atmosphere. The aligned magnetic moments start to disorder as the field weakens. The energy needed for this disordering is extracted from the material’s and its environment’s thermal energy due to energy conservation, which results in a sharp drop in temperature to the ultra-low temperatures necessary.
  • Continuous Operation: Continuous ADR (cADR) enhances usage, whereas one-shot ADR only reaches low temperatures and keeps them there for a predetermined “hold time” before requiring regeneration. To ensure continual low-temperature maintenance, the system uses multiple ADR stages, which alternate cycles so that one unit is actively cooling and another is being regenerated (magnetised).

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