Six Five Connected: Infleqtion Quantum Solutions – From Lab to Market

Infleqtion is developing groundbreaking quantum solutions for a variety of industries, including telecommunications, data centers, and financial centers. Diana Blass is joined by Infleqtion CEO Matthew Kinsella, Evan Salim, Quantum Fellow & Lead Prototype Engineer, and Christina Willis, Director, Government Affairs & Senior Optical Scientist on this episode of Six Five Connected for a conversation on how quantum technology has transitioned from academic research to enterprise applications.

Tune in as they cover:

  • The evolution of quantum technologies from theoretical exploration to commercial readiness
  • The development and impact of atomic clocks and quantum computers in various sectors
  • How Infleqtion is committed to bringing quantum solutions to market
  • Quantum’s journey from a lab at the University of Colorado Boulder to Infleqtion
  • Insight into how their leadership is driving quantum technology forward

Learn more at Infleqtion.

Watch the video above, and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel, so you never miss an episode.

Transcript

Diana Blass: Quantum technology has long been confined to the lab, but that’s changing. We headed to Colorado, a state at the forefront of quantum research to see it firsthand. As we pass the University of Colorado, we entered the heart of innovation. The university is known for Nobel Prize-winning breakthroughs in quantum physics, but today, we’re looking forward, not back. Not for coffee though. Take a closer look. That’s Matthew Kinsella, CEO of Infleqtion, starting his day. Infleqtion has emerged as a leading innovator in quantum technology with its roots tracing back to 2007 when Dr. Dana Anderson, a professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, made advancements in cold atom technology. With small-scale systems for cooling atoms to near absolute zero using techniques like laser cooling and magnetic trapping, Anderson made unprecedented control over quantum systems a practical reality. This breakthrough led to the founding of Inflection. Its first product consisted of vacuum cell components crucial for stabilizing atoms within quantum environments.

In 2018, the company secured significant venture funding to fuel its expansion and develop a quantum computing platform based on neutral atom technology. This led to the creation of atomic clocks and sensors adopted by the Department of Defense and NASA for ultra-precise navigation, timing, and even battlefield surveillance. We’ll explore more about neutral atoms later. First, let’s get back to Kinsella. He was the investor behind the 2018 funding and is now the CEO. His mission? To commercialize Infleqtion’s quantum solutions for a new market and that’s why Kinsella needs his coffee.

Matthew Kinsella: At the root of everything we do is the ability to precisely control atoms using lasers and then layering software on top of that to make those atoms do amazing things.

Diana Blass: Well, I’m excited to see it at work then.

Matthew Kinsella: Absolutely.

Diana Blass: Are you ready to head into the office?

Matthew Kinsella: Let’s do it. Welcome to Infleqtion, Diana.

Diana Blass: This isn’t just another office. It’s a frontline of a quantum race with Infleqtion’s victories on full display.

Matthew Kinsella: Quantum is very much in its transition from the research world, so basically existing in the lab to the commercial world, which is existing in the world, and there’s a huge chasm that takes place between those two areas. And Infleqtion’s mission, from the very beginning, has been to commercialize quantum.

Diana Blass: All right, we’re now inside the lab here at Inflection where all the magic happens. I’m joined by Evan Salim, the director of engineering. So what happens in here?

Evan Salim: So a lot of things happen in here.

Diana Blass: It said to look up. Why?

Evan Salim: Laser safety. So you can see here on the bench, this is a physics package for an optical atomic clock. So inside of this cylinder is a vapor cell that has the actual atoms that we’re using, which are rubidium, inside of it. The light comes in through this fiber and is delivered to the atoms. There’s a bunch of processes that happen to the light that allow us to then detect the effect of that light on the atoms and then use that to make a measurement, which we use to stabilize the laser. And that stabilizing the laser to the atomic sample is what gives us a very good frequency reference that we can then use to make a clock.

Diana Blass: That clock is called Tiqker, Infleqtion’s first commercial product. It’s a quantum atomic clock that delivers timekeeping precision 1,000 times greater than conventional clocks, ideal for critical infrastructure like telecommunication networks, data centers, and financial centers where any disruption in timing can lead to significant issues.

Christina Willis: Any place that you might need to use a GPS signal, a clock is useful. That’s right. We’ve been seeing all these things in the news where access to GPS gets interrupted and why does that matter? Because every data transaction network communications are all dependent on a timing signal that comes from GPS. So GPS actually has atomic clocks on them right now that we’re using every day and most people don’t realize that, but if you get access to GPS is interrupted, suddenly your network goes down. Your server goes down. You can’t execute your financial transactions. If you have a clock at your data center, which actually Infleqtion has a clock installed in a data center somewhere doing experiments to prove the use there, now you’re GPS resilient. Now you have a local timing signal. You can maintain your communications networks. So there’s a lot of really important commercial applications for clocks, but in contested environments like Ukraine where you might have GPS jamming intentionally by an adversary, if you have a local clock, you can still maintain your communications network.

Diana Blass: It’s clear that quantum technologies like these clocks aren’t just theoretical. They have the potential to revolutionize industries critical to national security, economic stability, and technological leadership. However, with such power comes risk. Quantum computers could one day break current encryption methods, creating significant security challenges. That’s why the United States government has invested billions in quantum innovation. Infleqtion has been a beneficiary with Tiqker born out of a DARPA research project, but the push for innovation doesn’t stop there. The next step? A Quantum RF device nearing commercial availability. This device detects and processes radio frequency signals with exceptional sensitivity even to weak or hidden signals, reducing the need for multiple antennas.

Matthew Kinsella: We’re turning an atom into an antenna, which is kind of wild.

Diana Blass: Yeah, that is wild. Is there appetite, though, to replace what we have now? I mean, if it’s working, why change it?

Matthew Kinsella: It could be a number of different reasons, but there’s a lot of duplication. If you have to buy, let’s say, 15 antennas to put on a car or a bunch of antennas to put in a phone, ultimately you could save a lot of money by just doing it all with one antenna.

Diana Blass: Infleqtion’s ability to scale down the size of its devices stem from its focus on cold atom and neutral atom technology. Cold atoms cooled to near absolute zero allow precise control, while neutral atoms unaffected by external electric forces are highly stable and manipulable by lasers and magnetic fields. This flexibility helps Infleqtion craft new applications and scale them for commercial use.

Christina Willis: Something that makes Infleqtion special is that the modality that we picked as a company, neutral atoms, has this flexibility to make so many different applications. It’s a same core technology of manipulating atoms with lasers, but it has such a flexibility, whereas if you look at superconducting quantum computing, if you manufacture a junction, superconducting junction to make a qubit, that’s all it’s ever going to be.

Diana Blass: It speaks to how early we are in the evolution of quantum. The market is still testing different approaches, especially for quantum computing, which many consider the long-term pot of gold in quantum. We saw an early prototype of Infleqtion’s quantum computer. The company has sold devices to the UK and Japanese governments for research, underscoring the current phase of the quantum computing race, their research stage.

Matthew Kinsella: It’ll be revolutionary for drug discovery. How could we know how a drug is going to interact with Diana’s unique molecular makeup inside of her? A computer could never model that. Well, a quantum computer can model that.

Diana Blass: Experts predict if you take another decade where quantum computers fully realize their potential. One of the biggest hurdles is their high error rates. Quantum bits, or qubits, are prone to errors due to decoherence and noise. Developers are working on algorithms to harness their power and as you can see, their size, which Kinsella hopes to shrink to the size of a Dell desktop.

Matthew Kinsella: Part of what I always liked about Infleqtion, going back to the seed investment that I made, was it wasn’t this binary bet that maybe we get a quantum computer or we don’t. I’m biased. I think neutral atoms are going to be one of the ones that gets there first. But I do think this is a very sound strategy, though, on how to bring quantum into the world with products that are here and now that there’re end market opportunities for which customers pay us money for which we can then use to fund our operations going forward.

Diana Blass: It’s that business mindset that led Infleqtion to appoint Matthew Kinsella as CEO in April 2024. But the road ahead won’t be easy. Quantum still faces big challenges and plenty of skepticism, which is why this isn’t a quick win. As a long-term game shaping the future of technology, companies like Infleqtion aren’t just building new tools. They’re opening doors to possibilities we once thought impossible. Curious what those possibilities are? Stay tuned and you’ll stay connected. Till next time, I’m Diana Blass.

Other Categories