Quantum computing has no shortage of ambitious hardware developers racing to build ever larger processors. Delft-based Orange Quantum Systems wants to test them all. While working on Quantum Inspire, Europe’s first cloud-accessible quantum computing platform, Adriaan Rol and several co-workers gained hands-on experience in what it takes to make a quantum computer tick. Every step of the way is difficult, but it was the testing that grabbed their attention: These painstaking characterization procedures took months. If quantum computing were ever to scale up successfully, this process would have to speed up drastically. That realization became the foundation of Orange Quantum Systems (OrangeQS). “Testing is a huge bottleneck, which, we figured, makes for a good business case,” says co-founder and executive director Rol. Founded in 2020, OrangeQS develops automated test equipment that characterizes quantum chips. These systems aren’t merely needed to tell manufacturers whether their chips function as intended; they gather data that’s pivotal in developing effective manufacturing processes in the first place. Bits&Chips’ Dutch state of semicon 2026 This article is part of the Bits&Chips special edition on the Dutch state of semicon, published on 23 October 2026. Order your hard copy of the special at info@techwatch.nl. By shrinking test times from months to days and automating the complex procedures, OrangeQS intends to play a pivotal role in the scaling of quantum technology. Much like ASML can claim the vast majority of chips have seen the inside of its lithography scanners, the company from Delft wants all quantum chips to pass through its testing equipment. Bad apples Testing quantum chips is challenging because of the same paradox that underpins quantum computing at large: The delicate quantum states that give qubits their computational power can exist only when they’re sufficiently isolated from environmental noise, yet they need to be accessible enough to be manipulated and measured. “You basically have to build a quantum computer to test the quantum bits,” says Rol. The testing itself is equally painstaking. Simply cooling the cryogenic ‘fridges’ to millikelvin operating temperatures takes two to three days, after which every newly fabricated chip must undergo lengthy calibration routines before meaningful measurements can begin. Until recently, much of that work was performed manually by PhD researchers, who stitched together custom Python scripts. Worse still, every new qubit design or control architecture can require calibration procedures to be rewritten from scratch. OrangeQS automates that process. By replacing months of manual characterization with standardized, automated workflows, the company aims to turn quantum chip testing from a research exercise into a manufacturing process capable of supporting large-scale production. OrangeQS has optimized its current Max system to process 150-qubit chips in a ten-day test cycle, the practical sweet spot dictated by today’s cryogenic infrastructure. Future generations are intended to boost throughput by testing multiple chips simultaneously and ultimately moving to wafer-level testing. This evolution aligns with developments already underway in quantum processor design. Manufacturers increasingly favor chiplet architectures rather than monolithic processors because yield falls dramatically as chips become larger. Non-destructive testing individual chiplets before packaging allows for selection of the best ones before assembling them into larger units. Credit: OrangeQS Overhaul Even with a rock-solid business case, a European startup can’t raise millions of euros on a slide deck. OrangeQS therefore took a gradual approach, spending its first three years bootstrapping in the academic market. The early products allowed it to validate its technology while generating revenue and building relationships across the global quantum ecosystem. On that foundation, the company closed it