IISc and Samsung Semiconductor India Research Open a Quantum Lab Focused on Qubits and Cryogenic Electronics
A Samsung-funded quantum research lab has opened at IISc Bengaluru to work on qubit characterisation, cryogenic electronics and single-photon devices, and to train researchers from across India.
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Samsung Semiconductor India Research (SSIR) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have opened a Quantum Research Lab on IISc's Bengaluru campus. Reports say the facility was inaugurated on 15 October 2026. It was set up with corporate social responsibility (CSR) funding from SSIR and sits in IISc's Department of Electronic Systems Engineering, where Professor Mayank Shrivastava leads the work.
The lab has been three years in the making. SSIR and IISc first announced the partnership in October 2023, through a memorandum of understanding signed by Balajee Sowrirajan of SSIR and IISc Director Govindan Rangarajan. The opening turns that agreement into working infrastructure.
What the lab will work on
According to coverage of the opening, the lab will focus on the engineering layer that sits between quantum physics and a usable machine:
- qubit characterisation: measuring how quantum bits behave, how long they hold information and what disturbs them;
- cryogenic electronics: control and readout circuits that work at the very low temperatures many qubits need;
- quantum-device reliability;
- single-photon sources and detectors, the building blocks of photonic quantum computing and quantum communication; and
- integrating advanced semiconductor materials with quantum systems.
When the partnership was announced in 2023, it described the aim of integrating cryogenic control chips with qubits and training students across physics, engineering, computer science and mathematics.
A semiconductor company's view of quantum
The lab's focus reflects who is funding it. A large share of a quantum computer's cost and complexity lies in the classical electronics that control it: thousands of cables and room-temperature instruments that do not scale. Moving that control electronics into chips that run inside the cryostat, next to the qubits, is one of the main engineering problems in the field, and it is a chip-design problem. Shrivastava's group at IISc works on semiconductor devices, which fits the lab's emphasis on device reliability and materials integration.
Why cold electronics is hard
Most superconducting qubits work at a few thousandths of a degree above absolute zero, inside dilution refrigerators with very limited cooling power at the coldest stage. Every wire that runs from room temperature into the fridge brings heat and noise with it, and every control chip placed inside has to work at temperatures where ordinary transistor models no longer hold. Characterising how silicon and other materials behave at those temperatures, and how they fail, is slow work that needs specialised instruments. Few Indian labs have so far been equipped to do it at scale.
Training as much as research
Coverage of the opening says the lab is meant to train students and researchers from across India, not only IISc, giving them hands-on access to specialised experimental equipment. It is linked to the India Semiconductor Workforce Development Program (ISWDP). This addresses a real bottleneck. The National Quantum Mission has funded hubs and start-ups, but people who have actually built and measured quantum hardware at cryogenic temperatures are still scarce in India.
How it fits the ecosystem
The lab joins a growing set of quantum facilities in India. Recent additions include a quantum hub at MIT Bengaluru, Amaravati's planned "Quantum Valley", and the hardware programmes of start-ups such as QpiAI and Quanfluence. Industry-funded academic labs like this one help connect the government-funded mission with companies that may eventually design control chips, photonic components or cryogenic electronics in India.
One caveat: detailed coverage of the inauguration so far comes from secondary outlets. Neither IISc nor Samsung has yet published a detailed release listing the lab's equipment or budget.
Sources
- GKToday — Samsung and IISc open Quantum Research Lab
- NewsBytes — IISc Bengaluru and Samsung Semiconductor India Research open quantum lab
- SiliconIndia — IISc and Samsung open quantum research lab in Bengaluru
- IISc — Samsung Semiconductor India Research and Indian Institute of Science collaborate to drive research on quantum technologies (2023)
- Collegedunia — IISc partners with SSIR to launch Quantum Technology Lab