HRL Laboratories Mission, Purpose & Impact

Setting the scene for a quantum shift

Quantum computing has reached a pivotal moment. Among the many physical qubit technologies, semiconductor spin qubits are rapidly moving from research niche toward engineering reality. At this year’s Silicon Quantum Electronics Workshop, researchers from leading companies, universities and national laboratories like Charles Tahan from Microsoft consistently remarked:

That level of confidence signals how much the landscape has changed. Spin qubits are transitioning from laboratory milestones to a realistic platform for large scale quantum systems.

From proof-of-concept to scalable engine

What is driving that shift? The hardware. Quantum dots are now routinely fabricated on 300mm wafers, leveraging advanced industrial semiconductor lines and bringing the promise of scale at small size and small cost. At the same time, single-electron spin control, two-qubit exchange coupling and advanced read-out technologies are showing rapid fidelity and coherence improvements.

Control systems are also advancing in ways that match the pace of device progress. The hardware that manages pulses, timing and measurement has long been one of the biggest challenges in spin qubit research.

Today, new platforms bring tighter synchronization, more efficient pulse delivery and faster iteration cycles. This alignment between device performance and control capability is one of the clearest indicators that the field is entering a more mature phase.

Why semiconductor spins stand out

This technology has advantages that are easy to understand and hard to ignore. It benefits from decades of semiconductor manufacturing, long coherence times enabled by isotopic engineering, and the size, speed, and fabrication cost lending to scalable architectures in affordable systems. These strengths explain why so many researchers now see semiconductor spins as a leading candidate for large scale systems.

Open source tools accelerating the field

One of the most encouraging trends is the move toward open, accessible tooling. HRL’s spinQICK initiative is an example of this shift. Built as an open-source extension to the Quantum Instrumentation Control Kit, spinQICK gives researchers a practical way to run spin qubit experiments on low cost RFSoC hardware.

• It supports initialization, read out, calibration and basic qubit operations, making it easier for universities and labs to participate in the field.
• Programs like this help build a broader ecosystem and lower the barrier to entry for new contributions

Looking ahead

The momentum behind spin qubits is growing, and the direction of travel is becoming clearer. Breakthroughs in fabrication, control and collaboration are converging in ways that were hard to imagine even a few years ago. The community’s confidence is rising because the progress is real.

What comes next will be shaped by continued partnerships, open tools and steady engineering. The future of quantum computing will depend on the choices made now, and semiconductor spin qubits are positioned to play a central role in that future.

HRL Laboratories has introduced a new inertial measurement unit (IMU) that provides near navigation-grade accuracy in a palm-sized package.

Smaller and lighter than grade-equivalent conventional sensors, HRL’s AXI-R100 delivers range-extending accuracy for GPS-contested navigation. The product is now ready for pre-production orders.

Using silicon microelectro-mechanical systems (MEMS) technology, HRL’s gyros exceeds the performance of many tactical-grade IMUs in the same or smaller package size, and is manufactured in high volumes at wafer-scale. This near navigation-grade performance is available at a tactical-grade price.

The new IMU is suitable for use in defense, aerospace and automotive applications, including missile-guidance systems and drone navigation, as well as for commercial automotive applications with higher levels of autonomy. The product is ready for integration as it has been designed and tested against challenging vibration, shock and thermal conditions representative of those applications.

HRL will present product specifications at the 2026 Joint Navigation Conference, taking place this week in Cincinnati, Ohio, and is exhibiting in booth 129.

By leveraging high volume design automotive methodologies, HRL designed AXI-R100 navigation sensors to scale for high-volume automotive demand while maintaining performance superiority over traditional tactical-grade sensors. The result is a gyroscope compatible with foundry fabrication processes for high volume applications.

“Our gyroscopes and inertial sensors support navigation, pointing and stabilization systems for autonomous vehicles, aircraft and guided missile and munition applications,” said Jeff Dickman, director, Precision Sensing, HRL Laboratories. “We leveraged our extensive microelectronics legacy along with innovations in micromechanical and manufacturing processes to pave the way for AXI-R100 to address the urgent needs from our industrial base.”

HRL Laboratories LLC of Malibu, CA, USA (a corporate R&D lab co-owned by The Boeing Company and General Motors) says that its T3L 40nm gallium nitride (GaN) on silicon carbide (SiC) technology achieved Manufacturing Readiness Level (MRL) 6 through the US Office of the Under Secretary of War. The firm considers the milestone to represent a significant step in the maturation of its RF GaN manufacturing technology for defense and high-performance commercial applications.

MRL 6 validation confirms the manufacturability of HRL’s 40nm T3L GaN-on-SiC technology on production-relevant fabrication flows, with repeatable process control and supply chain stability in alignment with US Department of War manufacturing standards to support purchasing this technology for a variety of US government programs.

Scaling production

HRL is on-track to transition high-volume manufacturing of this technology to MACOM Technology Solutions Inc of Lowell, MA, USA (which designs and makes RF, microwave, analog and mixed-signal and optical semiconductor technologies) as announced in November 2025, while retaining low-volume engineering foundry access and support for multi-project wafer (MPW) for qualified customers.

By coupling open-access MPW capability with a scalable production partner, HRL says that it enables rapid prototyping of baseline and advanced variants of T3L GaN while simultaneously supporting high-volume manufacturing. This is all accomplished within a unified ecosystem with a low barrier to entry.

“Reaching MRL 6 and defining high-volume transition to MACOM represent decisive steps toward sustainable domestic RF GaN production,” says Dr Erdem Arkun, group manager at HRL.

Next steps

HRL has also established that the process is compatible with advanced heterogeneous integration and 3DHI (three-dimensional heterogeneous integration) architectures. This enables higher-level integration with digital control electronics, beam-forming networks and next-generation radar and communications modules, reducing system size, weight and power (SWaP) for critical defense and commercial systems.

“The GaN T3L process excels in enabling 3DHI, which drives next-generation array systems by meeting the growing demands for higher performance, compact designs and energy efficiency in advanced electronic systems,” says Dr Andrea Arias-Purdue, principal investigator at HRL.

HRL is open to leveraging this manufacturing baseline and partnering with interested entities to integrate this technology into higher-level assemblies to realize differentiating solutions and advancing technological capabilities for critical defense and commercial applications. Interested parties can e-mail [email protected].

HRL foundry history

Since 2019, HRL’s open foundry has offered GaN processes to fabricate commercial and defense customer designs. The firm also offers design and high-frequency testing as a service and has a catalog of high-frequency monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs). HRL is actively fielding requests for higher-level integration and prototyping projects.

A surge of 2026 data center cooling announcements, from HRL’s ARPA-E-backed single-phase breakthrough and Johnson Controls’ planned Alloy acquisition to new AI-ready chillers from Carrier and Modine, shows the industry moving beyond the air-versus-liquid debate toward full-stack thermal architectures designed for high-density GPU workloads.

Key Highlights

• Chip-level innovations like HRL's Low-Chill cold plates aim to increase GPU cooling capacity while reducing pumping power, supporting hotter coolant loops and water-scarce environments.
• OEMs are acquiring liquid cooling IP and expanding manufacturing capacity to meet the rapid deployment and scaling needs of AI data centers, making proprietary thermal solutions a strategic differentiator.
• Reliability-focused chillers from Carrier and Modine demonstrate that robust heat rejection and quick recovery remain critical, especially under real-world operating extremes.
• Immersion cooling platforms, such as Infinium Edge, are positioning themselves as scalable, high-density solutions that unify chemistry, manufacturing, and deployment for next-generation AI infrastructure.
• The industry is integrating water management innovations, including wastewater-based cooling concepts, reflecting a broader shift towards sustainable and community-aware thermal solutions.

By early 2026, the data center cooling conversation has started to sound less like a product catalog and more like a systems engineering summit. The old framing - air cooling versus liquid cooling - still matters, but it increasingly misses the point. AI-era facilities are being defined by thermal constraints that run from chip-level cold plates to facility heat rejection, with critical decisions now shaped by pumping power, fluid selection, reliability under ambient extremes, water availability, and manufacturing throughput.

That full-stack shift is written all over a grab bag of recent cooling announcements. On one end of the spectrum we see a Department of Energy-funded breakthrough aimed directly at next-generation GPU heat flux. On the other, it's OEM product launches built to withstand –20°F to 140°F operating conditions and recover full cooling capacity within minutes of a power interruption. In between we find a major acquisition move for advanced liquid cooling IP, a manufacturing expansion that more than doubles footprint, and the quiet rise of refrigerants and heat-transfer fluids as design-level considerations.

What’s emerging is a new reality. Cooling is becoming one of the primary constraints on AI deployment technically, economically, and geographically. The winners will be the players that can integrate the whole stack and scale it.

1) The Chip-level Arms Race: Single-phase Fights for More Runway

The most “pure engineering” signal in this news batch comes from HRL Laboratories, which on Feb. 24, 2026 unveiled details of a single-phase direct liquid cooling approach called Low-Chill™. HRL’s framing is pointed: the industry wants higher GPU and rack power densities, but many operators are wary of the cost and operational complexity of two-phase cooling.

HRL says Low-Chill was developed under the U.S. Department of Energy’s ARPA-E COOLERCHIPS program, and claims a leap that goes straight at the bottleneck. It can increase processor cooling capability by 40% or reduce pumping power by more than 10X. That pumping-power claim is not a footnote. In AI-era liquid-cooled designs, it’s increasingly part of the economic and architectural equation.

“We designed this technology with real data center constraints in mind,” said Christopher Roper, principal investigator at HRL.

At the core is a cooling block architecture that uses an engineered 3D-printed manifold to distribute coolant through hundreds of short flow paths directly over the processor, addressing fundamental issues of conventional designs such as long channels, friction losses, and uneven coolant delivery. HRL’s disclosed metrics include:

• Thermal interface resistance: 8.2 °C/kW
• Pressure drop: below 1 psi per cooling block
• Pumping power: less than 1% of rack IT power (block-level)
• Hot-loop capability: coolant inlet temperatures up to 70°C

The company also claims that the approach can remove 40% more heat load compared to state-of-the-art cooling blocks under equivalent pumping power, supports heat flux up to 400 W/cm², and is scalable to higher powers. HRL even ties the performance envelope to future GPU roadmaps, stating the approach can help meet NVIDIA’s anticipated Rubin and Feynman GPU cooling needs.

Crucially, HRL’s “why it matters” pitch extends beyond silicon. By enabling ultra-low thermal resistance at the processor level, the approach can support hotter coolant loops, which in turn can make dry air coolers more viable, reducing reliance on evaporative systems and improving compatibility with water-constrained climates.

“As a private company owned jointly by Boeing and GM,” HRL positioned the work as deployable and partner-ready, while explicitly stating it is seeking development partners.

The takeaway? Single-phase liquid cooling isn’t done evolving. If the performance claims hold up in broader deployments, the “single-phase vs. two-phase” decision may be less about theoretical limits and more about how far innovations like manifold geometry can push practical limits.