India's DRDO Signs 20 mK Cryocooler Agreement with Zero mK India

en.Wedoany.com Reported - The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) of India has signed an agreement with domestic startup Zero mK India to advance the first high-value deep-tech project under the Technology Development Fund (TDF) scheme. The project targets the indigenous engineering and manufacturing of a 20 millikelvin (20 mK) dilution refrigerator, establishing a secure domestic supply chain for sub-Kelvin cryogenic hardware required for quantum computing and defence applications.

This is the first high-value project approved under the expanded TDF funding pool of Rs 5 billion (approximately USD 52.2 million), sanctioned by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. Dilution refrigerators provide the ultra-low-temperature, sub-absolute-zero environment needed for solid-state quantum processing units to maintain phase coherence, at temperatures as low as 20 mK, serving superconducting circuits, silicon spin qubits, and quantum sensing arrays. The project is supervised, guided, and technically evaluated by the Director and scientific team of DRDO's Solid State Physics Laboratory (SSPL) in Delhi.

The project sets an operating temperature of 20 mK (0.02 K), employing a sub-Kelvin 3He/4He dilution cycle, covering the scalable testing and packaging phases of quantum processing units (QPUs). Funding comes from the Rs 5 billion TDF deep-tech funding pool, with SSPL Delhi as the guiding institution.

The project aligns with India's National Quantum Mission (NQM), aiming to mitigate supply risks associated with dependence on imported specialised cryogenic equipment and reduce import reliance on Western cryogenic supplier systems. Developing indigenous sub-Kelvin refrigeration capability can support domestic research laboratories, defence communication projects, and commercial quantum hardware developers building sovereign quantum computing infrastructure.