Germany Deploys First Laser - Free Trapped - Ion Quantum Computer Inside Major Supercomputing Facility

Germany has switched on a quantum computer that controls its qubits with microwaves rather than lasers — a hardware distinction that, for the first time, allowed engineers to wire a gate-based trapped-ion system directly into one of Europe's most powerful supercomputers without the vibration-sensitive optical infrastructure that has historically kept such machines confined to specialty physics labs. On September 3, 2026, Forschungszentrum Jülich and the Siegen-based startup eleQtron officially inaugurated JION at JSC — the Jülich trapped-ION quantum computer — at the Jülich Supercomputing Centre (JSC) in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). The inauguration ceremony, held before NRW Minister-President Hendrik Wüst, Economics Minister Mona Neubaur, and Science Minister Ina Brandes, was also the occasion for two additional funding announcements: approval of a successor project called SQALING and a second project called Q-STAR.NRW, each receiving up to approximately €25 million (approximately $29 million USD) from EU structural funds and NRW state support, signaling that JION is a waypoint in a multi-step regional quantum computing strategy. Both successor programs were announced at the ceremony alongside the JION inauguration itself. Prof. Kristel Michielsen, who heads the Jülich Supercomputing Centre and leads the JUNIQ platform, described the system's role in measured terms. "JUNIQ provides access to…