QD plans €152m quantum inspection facility in Munich
QuantumDiamonds GmbH has unveiled plans for a €152 million investment to build what it calls the world’s first production facility for quantum-based chip inspection systems. The site will be located in eastern Munich and marks a major scale-up for the German deep-tech startup.
This announcement sits at the intersection of advanced semiconductor manufacturing, inspection bottlenecks, and Europe’s push for technology sovereignty. It also highlights how quantum sensing is moving from lab innovation to industrial deployment in high-volume chip production.
A strategic Chips Act project for Europe
The Munich facility is positioned as a strategic asset for Europe’s semiconductor ecosystem and is expected to receive tens of millions of euros in public funding from the German federal government and the state of Bavaria under the European Chips Act.
Bavarian Minister for Economic Affairs Hubert Aiwanger framed the project as a signal of intent for the region, saying: “The new site in eastern Munich sends a strong signal for the future of our microelectronics ecosystem. With its cutting-edge analysis technologies, QuantumDiamonds shows how vital innovation is for Europe’s semiconductor competitiveness. The planned support from the federal and Bavarian governments is an investment in high-quality jobs, technological sovereignty, and our region’s progress.”
Europe currently accounts for only around 10% of global semiconductor production, despite being home to major automotive, industrial, and AI chip customers. The Chips Act aims to double that share by 2030, and inspection and metrology are increasingly seen as critical leverage points in the value chain.
Tackling yield loss in advanced packaging
QuantumDiamonds is addressing a growing pain point in chip manufacturing. As AI and high-performance processors push density and power levels higher, yields are falling and failure analysis is struggling to keep up.
“Non-destructive fault isolation in advanced packaging is an incredibly difficult challenge that the industry is still working on to solve,” says Dr. David Su, former director of TSMC’s failure analysis team and now an advisor to QuantumDiamonds. “This technology shows significant promise in addressing that gap. By detecting magnetic fields to trace current, it offers a potential pathway to visualize defects that are currently invisible to standard thermal or X-ray tools.”
The company’s QDM systems use nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond to map electrical current with micrometer resolution, without opening chip packages. This is particularly relevant for 2.5D and 3D architectures using TSVs, microbumps, and chiplets.
“Our tools give fabs layer-specific insight into current paths in TSVs, microbumps, and chiplets without opening the package,” said Dr. Fleming Bruckmaier, QuantumDiamonds CTO and co-founder. “As heterogeneous integration becomes the norm, this level of inspection is no longer optional but essential.”
From pilot projects to global production
QuantumDiamonds says it has completed proof-of-concept projects with nine of the world’s ten largest chip manufacturers, with early deployments already in Europe and further installations planned for the US and Taiwan in Q1 2026.
CEO and co-founder Kevin Berghoff sees the Munich investment as a turning point. “This investment plan is a strategic commitment to European technology sovereignty,” he said. “We’re transitioning from research to global production, and we are planning to do it in Germany.”
An EU evaluation report has even suggested QuantumDiamonds “has the potential to create the next ASML,” underlining the strategic importance of advanced inspection tools as Europe looks to strengthen its role in the global semiconductor market.
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