BBA 2024 Winner Profile: Digi-Tech Innovation – Oxford Instruments KK

On receiving the British Chamber of Commerce in Japan’s British Business Award (BBA) for Digi-Tech Innovation in early November, Oxford Instruments KK (OIKK) was commended for “driving exceptionally effective digital/technology innovation, services or solutions in Japan over the past 12 months.”

Founded by Sir Martin Wood in 1959 as the first substantial commercial spinout company from the University of Oxford, Oxford Instruments plc provides cutting-edge products and services to industrial leaders and scientific researchers from its Oxfordshire headquarters. It also has offices in the United States, Europe and Asia.

In Tokyo, OIKK supports the import, sales, repair and purchase of scientific research equipment and analytical instruments from its office and innovation centre in Shinagawa, where the firm has been located for about a year.

OIKK was recognised by a panel of esteemed judges from the UK–Japan ecosystem for successfully integrating Oxford Instrument’s sophisticated dilution refrigerator into a system that has enabled the first quantum computer to operate in TY11, a commercial data centre in Tokyo run by US-based digital infrastructure company Equinix.

The project’s completion, in autumn 2023, has delivered a “significant global impact,” according to Tony Ford, fellow at OIKK, who notes that the learnings from OIKK’s efforts can now be leveraged to place dilution refrigerator systems in data centres in the United States and Europe.

Long road to success  

Today, OIKK’s efforts are powering the commercial use of quantum computing to solve very complex problems that classical computers simply cannot, such as how to automate processes, optimise data or manage logistics. The journey to reach this point, however, has been long and challenging.

Oxford Instruments invented the first commercial dilution refrigerator capable of achieving temperatures of a few thousands of a degree above absolute zero (one of the coldest places in the universe) in the 1960s. Although originally developed for, and utilised by, scientists who wanted to better understand materials’ properties, in the 2000s, people began exploring the use of quantum devices with the refrigerators to facilitate quantum computing.

Around a decade ago, Professor Peter Leek of the University of Oxford invented a way of fixing qubits, the basic units of information in quantum computing, onto these refrigerators, thereby making the control of qubits possible—a breakthrough in quantum computing. With this technology, he founded Oxford Quantum Circuits (OQC), OIKK’s partner company for the dilution refrigerator project.

“OQC realised that to bring quantum devices out from research laboratories and into society, to enable their wider application, there was a need to engage with data centres, which already have many commercial uses,” explained Ford.

However, as data centres are strictly controlled environments, complete with physical and cyber security, there were challenges to overcome. These challenges included inserting anchor bolts into the floor to secure the refrigerator, as well as storing cooling water and specialist gases such as liquid nitrogen.

“We had to do a lot of detailed analysis with our engineers, the OQC engineers and the engineers of the building. After several months of discussion, everything was agreed and we completed the process,” said Ford, adding that meeting the strict safety and structural requirements for seismic activities in Japan was particularly tough.

Going forward, Oxford Instruments will continue to manufacture dilution refrigerators, “which each cost a few million pounds and contribute massively to exports from the UK to Japan,” he continued. These will then be sold to OQC, which will make contracts with commercial organisations to use the system for quantum computing applications.

Expansion into other data centres is difficult to predict, he said, but “will be driven by the number of users who want to use quantum,” he said, adding that more businesses are looking to quantum to solve complex problems. “Where there is a data centre, there is the possibility of quantum computing.”

New products, progress 

This year also saw Oxford Instruments launch Vero, the first and only video-rate atomic force microscope to incorporate cutting-edge technology that enables measurements to be made with much higher accuracy and precision. The device makes improved analysis of semiconductors and other advanced materials possible.

Although launched globally in the spring, the first sale of Vero was secured in Japan, “indicating the close relationship between OIKK and its Japanese customers,” said Ford.

Those ties are set to strengthen and deepen further by 2030, with the launch of Oxford Instruments’ new strategy, OI 30, he added: “Putting customers at the centre of the strategy is key … In Japan we will continue to form very close collaborations with industrial customers and our academic partnerships.”

OIKK’s support to date includes its sponsorship of the Sir Martin Wood Prize, which celebrates the work of materials scientists under the age of 45. The winners are invited to give lectures at academic institutions in the UK and Germany.

“Unlike many science prizes, such as the Nobel, which recognises people at the end of their career for work they’ve done decades earlier, the Sir Martin Wood Prize goes to people whose best days are still ahead, but they’ve already done remarkable things,” said Ford. “Through those collaborations, we’ve developed a very good network within the academic and business community and been able to get quick access to new innovations that can be incorporated into new products.”

Thanks, in part, to OIKK’s gender pay gap of zero, the firm has also been able to recruit a significant number of female application engineers to work at its new innovation centre. Experienced in chemistry, physics or software engineering, these new hires have already “contributed to the growth of Oxford Instruments and led to some innovations through collaborations with customers,” he added.

Recognition, near and far

Winning the BBA has provided OIKK’s staff with not only a morale booster but also extra motivation to continue the great work they have achieved over the past couple of years, explained Ford.

It also shines a light on the activities of OIKK, making it more visible externally and to colleagues around the world: “We want to build stronger relationships with customers and partners. Winning an award that is judged by third parties increases our visibility and brand recognition in the market. It also shows that the activities we’re doing in Japan, in close collaboration with the head office, are being recognised for delivering results.”