Mitsubishi Electric is developing control lasers and microwave hardware for larger quantum machines, with Japan's NEDO backing research across several competing architectures. 

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Quantum computing has made steady progress in the laboratory, but increasing the number of qubits brings a new set of engineering problems. More qubits mean more signals to control, more components to manage and, in many cases, tighter requirements around noise and stability. Mitsubishi Electric is now working on some of those supporting technologies after two research projects were selected for funding by Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, or NEDO. Announced on September 17, the work covers laser systems for neutral-atom and trapped-ion machines and compact, multi-channel amplifiers for superconducting designs.  

Scaling Quantum Computers Means Scaling the Hardware Around Them 

Neutral-atom and trapped-ion machines use lasers to control atoms or ions, and Mitsubishi Electric plans to develop high-power, highly stable sources alongside FPGA-based control technology designed to reduce delays. Superconducting machines use microwave signals to manipulate their qubits inside cryogenic environments. Work on this side will focus on small, multi-channel, low-noise amplifier modules, drawing on the company's experience with microwave integrated circuits. Research will involve organisations including Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. 

Mitsubishi Electric points to one million qubits when describing the scale future machines may need to reach for practical applications. It presents the figure as a challenge for the field rather than a target these two efforts are expected to deliver. The difficulty is not simply the number of qubits. Quantum states are sensitive to noise and other errors, so larger machines need control technology capable of handling many components accurately while supporting the error-correction methods required for reliable calculations. NEDO's funding programme reflects the same challenge, with support extending to large-scale systems, components, materials and technologies for error-tolerant computing.  

Japan's wider quantum programme covers large-scale quantum systems, components and materials, error-tolerant software and industrial applications. For Mitsubishi Electric, the approach creates an opportunity to apply technologies it already develops rather than requiring the company to build a complete processor itself. Its experience with lasers and microwave electronics can serve several types of machines while researchers and companies continue to pursue different architectures.  

Another part of the company's recent quantum activity involves optical computing. On September 15, the ME Innovation Fund announced an investment in OptQC, a Japanese startup working on optical quantum hardware. OptQC grew out of technology developed at the University of Tokyo's Furusawa Laboratory, and Mitsubishi Electric said the investment would give it access to optical quantum technology and help it explore potential applications. It adds another area of interest to existing work involving superconducting, trapped-ion and neutral-atom approaches.  

Mitsubishi Electric's work is aimed at a part of quantum computing that is easy to overlook when attention is fixed on processors and qubit counts. Larger machines will require control lasers, microwave electronics and other components capable of keeping up with them, and the performance of those technologies will affect how far different designs can be developed. Both projects are still at the research and development stage, so their eventual role in commercial machines remains uncertain. Japan's decision to fund this work shows that its quantum push is extending beyond processors to the equipment needed to operate them. 

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