Princeton to Lead $27.9M NSF MARQUIS Institute: Tackling the Materials Bottleneck in Superconducting Quantum Computing
> On August 25, 2026, the US National Science Foundation (NSF) announced a new round of the Quantum Leap Challenge Institutes program worth $290 million. Princeton University will lead the MARQUIS institute with a five-year, $27.9 million award, targeting the core manufacturing bottleneck of superconducting quantum processors—the Josephson junction. This is not another quantum-advantage paper, but a manufacturing paradigm shift from "hand-built lab devices" to "semiconductor-fab production."
The 25-Year Materials Stagnation: The Josephson Junction Problem
The Josephson junction—the heart of nearly all superconducting qubits—is a sandwich of two superconductors separated by an insulating oxide layer only a few atoms thick. Cooper pairs quantum-tunnel through this barrier, forming a nonlinear inductive element that can be precisely controlled to process quantum information. Its quality directly determines qubit coherence times, gate fidelities, and scalability.
The problem: for the past 25 years, the entire industry has fabricated Josephson junctions with essentially the same materials technology—aluminum + aluminum oxide, patterned with polymer stencil masks. This works for academic prototypes and small systems, but scaling from tens to thousands or tens of thousands of qubits requires reinventing the most fundamental building block.
Nathalie de Leon, Princeton professor of electrical and computer engineering and MARQUIS director, put it bluntly: "The community has been using essentially the same materials technology for about a quarter of a century. That technology works well for experimental prototypes and small systems. But to build quantum computers at scientifically useful scales, the most basic element must be reinvented."
MARQUIS's Interdisciplinary Scope
MARQUIS (Manufacturable and Resilient superconducting Quantum Information Systems) is not a pure physics institute but a manufacturing-focused alliance spanning materials science, quantum devices, and semiconductor processing.
Nine research institutions with over twenty laboratories participate: Princeton (lead, Nathalie de Leon), Cornell (co-lead, Valla Fatemi), MIT, UC Santa Barbara, Stanford, Dartmouth, NY Creates, Michigan State, and University of Iowa. The advisory board includes Google Quantum AI, NVIDIA, Applied Materials, Oxford Instruments, Bluefors, Imec/KU Leuven, and MIT Lincoln Laboratory—one of the deepest academia-industry partnerships in quantum manufacturing.
Cornell's Valla Fatemi, deputy director, has already made key progress: his team used krypton gas to deposit tantalum on silicon at 200°C, making the process more compatible with semiconductor manufacturing, and developed a resist-free method for fabricating Josephson junctions using etched silicon trenches—reducing contamination and opening up new materials and processes.
Why the Josephson Junction Must Be Reinvented
The traditional aluminum/aluminum-oxide junction is not unusable—it is unscalable:
1. Material loss. Dielectric loss in aluminum oxide limits coherence times. De Leon's team's results last year showed that reimagining junction materials can improve qubit performance by 15x over leading industrial chips—the biggest advance in the field in over a decade. 2. Manufacturing compatibility. Superconducting qubits are mostly hand-built in academic cleanrooms using polymer stencil masks incompatible with mainstream CMOS lines. Thousands-of-qubits processors require semiconductor-compatible deposition, etching, and patterning. 3. Repeatability and yield. Hand-built qubits have large parameter spread. Quantum computing must borrow the yield and repeatability expertise that the semiconductor industry developed over half a century.
Mid-Scale Testbeds: Bridging Lab and Fab
MARQUIS will also develop testing and validation methods for mid-scale quantum processors—the critical step between academic lab systems and future large processors. These testbeds will standardize research across labs and let experts from other fields (e.g., semiconductor manufacturing engineers) meaningfully contribute. De Leon noted: "In the semiconductor industry, much of the best knowledge is hidden behind curtains. The literature is vast and hard to untangle on our own. Having a few key experts who know the right signposts and ways of thinking is truly essential."
NSF's Big Picture: $290 Million, Eight Institutes
MARQUIS is one of eight NSF Quantum Leap Challenge Institutes funded in this round ($290M total; ~$28–37M each over five years), covering computing, sensing, and communication:
- MARQUIS (Princeton): superconducting quantum processor manufacturing
- HQAN: hybrid quantum architectures and networks, interconnecting qubit types
- PRACTIQAL: practical quantum error correction
- CIQC: new quantum algorithms and hardware architectures
- QuBBE: quantum sensing for biophysics, nanoprobes, living-cell measurements
- Q-SEnSE: entanglement science, precision sensing, atomic clocks
- RQS: robust quantum simulation
- FTQSAA: fault-tolerant quantum system architectures
From "Graveyard" to "Factory"
Nobel laureate Michel Devoret—who first showed how Josephson junctions could create "artificial atoms"—described superconducting qubit improvement efforts as a "graveyard" for aspiring physicists and engineers: too many promising ideas have died at the hands of material defects, fabrication variability, and engineering complexity.
MARQUIS signals a US strategy shift from "chasing qubit counts" to "building manufacturing foundations." Globally, the competition is deep: China advances in photonic (Jiuzhang) and superconducting (Zuchongzhi) routes, Japan recently launched its first full-stack neutral-atom quantum computer, and IBM and Google keep setting logical-qubit records. MARQUIS means the US is attempting to build a long-term advantage in quantum manufacturing—not through any single Nature paper, but through systemic engineering capability across materials science, semiconductor processes, and quantum devices.
Key figures: $27.9M NSF award / 5 years (Princeton MARQUIS, announced 2026-08-25); $290M total for eight NSF institutes; nine institutions / 20+ labs; de Leon team 2025 result: 15x qubit performance improvement; aluminum + aluminum oxide junctions unchanged for 25+ years; advisory board includes Google Quantum AI, NVIDIA, Applied Materials, Imec.
*Sources: Princeton University press release / NSF announcement / Cornell National Tribune / Quantum Zeitgeist / Quantum Spectator / Reuters*