Hefei high-tech zone company Origin Quantum develops China's first MLLAS-100 laser annealer. [Photo/WeChat ID: hefeigaoxinfabu]

Manufacturer Hefei Origin Quantum Computing Technology Co Ltd, or Origin Quantum, said it recently developed China's first MLLAS-100 laser annealer – which will help solve instability and increase quality in the production of advanced quantum computer chips.

Laser annealing is an industrial process, ideal for steel and titanium, which makes them corrosive-resistant. Among other things, it's used in medical applications and cutting tools and increases their longevity.

Established in 2017 in the Hefei High-Tech Zone – located in Hefei city, capital of East China's Anhui province – Origin Quantum focuses on quantum computers and related technologies, with the CAS Key Laboratory of Quantum Information being the origin of its technology.

A laser annealer is like a "scalpel" for a doctor performing surgery. It can be used to improve the production quality of quantum chips by solving targeted problems.

That follows issues detected by a nondestructive probe electrical measurement platform, said Jia Zhilong, deputy director of Anhui Quantum Computing Engineering Research Center.

The company's new laser annealer will be used with a newly developed nondestructive probe electrical measurement platform.

The probe is dedicated to finding problems, while the laser annealer aims to solve issues during production – leading to the manufacturing of higher-quality quantum chips, Jia said.

Inside the offices of Origin Quantum, based in the Hefei high-tech zone. [Photo/WeChat ID: hefeigaoxinfabu]

According to Guo Guoping, a professor at the University of Science and Technology of China, quantum computers are national weapons of strategic value and have been described as the atomic bomb of the information age. The higher the number of quantum bits, the stronger its computing power.