Germany: Pioneering scalable quantum cooling

Cooling is essential for the emerging quantum computing industry. Traditional technologies rely on helium-3, a critical yet scarce and expensive resource, so much so that even mining on the moon is being considered. German company, kiutra, has an alternative that reduces the dependency on helium-3 and could thus boost Europe’s competitiveness in quantum technologies: it is developing scalable and user-friendly cryostats that cool quantum devices to operational kelvin and sub-kelvin temperatures by alternative means.

The company name is a composition of Q [kju:], the physical formula symbol for heat, and the Latin word “trahere”, meaning “to draw” or “to extract”. A spinout company from the Technical University of Munich, kiutra’s core innovation is a novel magnetic cooling device that does not use helium-3.

Eureka and its Eurostars programme have been fantastic for us. It has enabled both our research and development and the very fruitful collaboration with our Dutch partners. Together, these things have been crucial to the success of our project.

Alexander Regnat – co-founder and Managing Director at kiutra

In pursuit of eliminating helium-3 from quantum cooling, kiutra partnered with Dutch company Delft Circuits in the Eureka project SPROUT. The international collaboration brought decisive synergies: Delft Circuit’s expertise in low-temperature radiofrequency wiring complemented kiutra’s know-how in magnetic cooling.

The result was a scientific-technological breakthrough in cryogenics in the form of an easy-to-use multichannel platform that has laid the foundation for scalable helium-free cooling through magnetocaloric refrigeration. The platform, which can be used to support the operation of quantum devices, has been successfully integrated into kiutra’s commercial products, accelerating the company’s growth, enhancing customer satisfaction and securing additional public funding and private investment. Building on these findings, kiutra continued development within a European Innovation Council Pathfinder Challenge project to scale its magnetic cooling for larger systems.

Eureka proved essential for kiutra to advance their research and development, leading to tangible impact on the market. With funding from the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR), participation in the SPROUT project also allowed the company to enrich its innovation culture by fostering cross-border networking and intersectoral knowledge transfer.

The results of the Eureka project have significantly strengthened kiutra’s market position. Since its inception, the company has expanded its workforce to 60 employees, secured over 30 million euro in private investment and public grants and successfully grown its customer base to more than 50 organisations across Europe, Asia and North America.

kiutra’s objective was to develop high-performance cooling platforms without the use of helium-3, a geopolitically critical and extremely scarce resource. Today, the German company provides easy-to-access and scalable cooling solutions crucial for tomorrow’s commercial quantum technologies.