3D-printing could make it easier to make large quantum computers

As quantum computers get larger, they may become truly useful – 3D-printing a key component of some quantum computers may make it easier to build larger arrays of qubits to make them more powerful

By Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

3 September 2025

An ion trap used to corral two beryllium ions above a gold microchip

Y. Colombe/NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

To make some quantum computers larger, and therefore more powerful, we may have to 3D-print them.

Currently, there is no consensus on the single best design for quantum computers, but researchers agree that to become unambiguously useful, quantum computers will have to be made larger. For those that use ions as quantum bits, or qubits, a key building block is called an “ion trap”. Hartmut Häffner at the University of California, Berkeley, and his colleagues have now developed a 3D-printing technique for miniaturised ion traps, which could make it easier to combine many of them into one large computer.

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What exactly would a full-scale quantum computer be useful for?

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The purpose of an ion trap is right in its name: it confines ions in place and helps control their quantum states with electromagnetic fields, an essential condition for using ions to run calculations.

For their version, the researchers 3D-printed traps that were just a few hundred microns across. In extensive laboratory tests, these beat more conventional designs. They captured ions up to 10 times more efficiently and did so with shorter wait times from when the trap is turned on to when the ions can be used, says Häffner. “You can scale to an order of magnitude more qubits, and you can speed up things,” he says.

Team member Xiaoxing Xia at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California says that 3D-printing is a perfect match for the problem at hand, because it can make small and complex objects with fewer restraints than methods more akin to chip manufacturing. This means the researchers could follow the success of their tiny ion trap with more innovative and novel designs. Team member Shuqi Xu, also at the University of California, Berkeley, says some are already in the works. “3D-printing lets you reimagine things to a large degree,” says Xia.