QCBRIEF
SDT, a South Korean quantum equipment maker, will build Open Quantum Design's open trapped ion processors, quantum chips that use charged atoms in vacuum, for global research and defense buyers.
Open-source quantum hardware has its first contracted manufacturer. SDT, a South Korean quantum equipment maker, will translate Open Quantum Design's open trapped-ion blueprints, which cover ultra-high-vacuum chambers, microfabricated surface ion-trap electrodes, laser and optical assemblies, and control electronics, into physical QPU systems for the global universities, research labs, and defense agencies OQD names as its target buyers.
The partnership was announced at Quantum Korea 2026. It is the first time OQD's open hardware designs, released as a public repository in March 2026, have a manufacturing path to deliverable machines. The nonprofit, founded in 2024 with founding partners including Xanadu, the University of Waterloo, and Haiqu, has until now run on volunteer and academic effort.
"By bringing together vacuum, trapping, optics, and control subsystems under a single manufacturing partner, we can shorten the path from open blueprint to reproducible system," SDT CEO Ji-won Yoon said in a Seoul Economic Daily report.
Aggregator coverage flags expansion plans into ASEAN and Latin America, alongside SDT's separate moves into LightFlow's optical-supplier network and a Seoul QCaaS deployment. None of those supply a delivery date, a qubit count, or a fidelity target yet. The first concrete QPU build is the watch item.