Qubic Secures CA$1.5 Million ($1.08 Million USD) Canadian Federal Contract for Cryogenic Amplifiers

Cryogenic signal-processing developer Qubic has signed a contract with an agency of the Canadian federal government valued at up to CA$1.5 million (US$1.08 million). Awarded through the Innovative Solutions Canada (ISC) Testing Stream, the agreement supports the delivery, sub-Kelvin integration, and performance testing of Qubic’s low-noise amplifiers and companion control software in real-world operational environments.

Under the contract terms, Sherbrooke-based Qubic will deliver nine Kinetic Inductance Traveling Wave Parametric Amplifiers (KI-TWPAs), along with mounting accessories and evaluation software, starting in late 2026, with final evaluation milestones scheduled through spring 2027. Unlike conventional cryogenic amplifiers that consume up to 50% of a dilution refrigerator’s available cooling power, Qubic’s hardware reduces thermal dissipation to under 0.1 mW. Rather than relying on magnetic-field-sensitive Josephson junctions, Qubic’s KI-TWPA architecture draws non-linear inductance directly from the superconducting transmission line material, providing a magnetic-field-resilient device that operates near the quantum limit to support multiplexed qubit readout and high-sensitivity RF sensing.