Physicists build start-up to offer microchip-R&D-as-a-service
It doesn’t really matter if it’s for quantum or classical electronics. Contemporary devices are so complex to build, that it takes a very special skill-set to succeed. This insight prompted a group of University of Copenhagen physicists to build their own company, FabCue. Their aim? To make electronics prototyping as easy as ordering your dinner delivered. By Jes Andersen.
Commercial use of university infrastructure
Co-located with other quantum physics research groups at the University of Copenhagen, FabCue rents university facilities for its fabrication. All founders have spent time in industry, but are, in the words of the company’s Chief Scientific Officer, “Proudly rounded by the Niels Bohr Institute”.
We got our education here. One of our co-founders actually helped set up the university’s clean room, and the other two have been making and testing novel research electronics at the university for over a decade. Our academic work here showed us, that there is a customer need, and we use Niels Bohr Institute equipment because we are super-familiar with it”: Saulius Vaitiekėnas, CSO, FabCue.
Fast and easy alternative
For a non-physicist, the processes you need to master in order to build an electronic device prototype sound breathtakingly techy. From growing tailored material to build the device on, over designing chips with the help of artificial intelligence, using photolithography, solid state deposition and atomic layer deposition for building it, to bonding the finished device to a test platform. Nonetheless, these are all processes that physics students learn.
It takes a lot of time to train a student to do these things, and they will barely have time left over to do the actual scientific work they were supposed to do. With start-ups, the problem will often be that they do not have the resources. For example, a state-of-the-art cleanroom for prototyping is not cheap to set up and maintain. We offer a fast and easy alternative whether you are doing academic or commercial research”: Shivendra Upadhyay, CTO, FabCue.
Sparring partner for quantum industry
Founded in December of 2025, the company already had three paying customers by March 2026. They hope to become a favoured sparring partner for the fast-growing quantum device industry in Innovation District Copenhagen with their ability to provide prototypes, develop production methods and even provide small batch line production.
We are not selling a technology. We are selling our expertise, our flexibility, our speed and our continued connection to a dynamic academic environment. Not many others provide this service”: Lucas Casparis, CEO, FabCue.
Academia and industry in one
An example of this connection to an academic environment is Vaitiekėnas himself. While building the company, he is also an Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen. Here, he runs his own group, the Quantum Matter Lab. He is very thankful for the help and support FabCue has gotten from the university. In access to facilities and in administrative matters.
You know: It’s not in the academic nature to think in terms of products and services, but it is valuable for Europe, the nation, for the university and even for the individual researcher to think about how research can be applied. So, it’s great that the mentality of university administrators has been supportive and enabling. Even legal issues turned out to be interesting, fun and straightforward”: Saulius Vaitiekėnas, CSO, FabCue.
A vibrant quantum ecosystem
The Innovation District Copenhagen quantum ecosystem includes the start-up communities Quantum Denmark and BioInnovation Institute. The fabrication unit Quantum Foundry. A wafer production unit. Quantum research initiatives across physics, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, and biology, and one of the world’s most powerful commercially available quantum computers, which should come on-line in 2027.
