QuantumDiamonds and the EIC Accelerator: Quantum Eyes for Chips

QuantumDiamonds, co-founded in 2022 by Kevin Berghoff and Fleming Bruckmaier as a spin-out of the Technical University of Munich, builds microscopes that use nitrogen-vacancy centres, atomic defects in diamond, to image the magnetic fields of currents flowing inside chips, so that faults in advanced packages can be located without destroying them. It was selected in the EIC Accelerator's June 2023 cut-off with blended finance and received an EU grant of €2.48 million for DIAMONIQ, a €3.54 million project from March 2024 to February 2027 to bring its imager to industrial readiness, according to CORDIS.

The first report, to February 2025, says the company had a demo tool running at Fraunhofer EMFT for commercial projects, provided testing services for seven partners in 2024, and had "close collaborations with 14 of the 15 largest semiconductor companies worldwide", according to the CORDIS reporting page. It says the technology moved from readiness level 4 to 6 in 24 months. Since then QuantumDiamonds installed its QDm.1 system at Eurofins EAG Laboratories in Sunnyvale, California, in April 2026, according to QuantumDiamonds, and at the test house iST in Hsinchu, Taiwan, the same month, according to QuantumDiamonds.

Where QuantumDiamonds Stands Now

In July 2026 QuantumDiamonds closed €91 million: a €15 million equity round led by World Fund and €76 million of non-dilutive funding from the German federal government and Bavaria, approved at EU level under the European Chips Act, according to QuantumDiamonds. It says it is "in line to become the sole startup awarded manufacturing funding" under the act. The same month it opened the first section of a Munich production facility, part of a €152 million investment plan announced in December 2025, according to QuantumDiamonds. In September 2026 it demonstrated contact-free current imaging, a step toward inspection on production lines rather than only in failure analysis labs.

The Technology: Seeing Current Through Magnetism

Modern chips stack dies and route power through dense three-dimensional packages, and when one fails, engineers often have to cut it apart to find the fault. Every electric current creates a magnetic field; diamond with nitrogen-vacancy centres can map those fields at room temperature with sub-micrometre resolution, the report says, so the path of the current and the location of a short can be seen from outside. The company pitches this as a way to raise yields of advanced AI chips.

What the EIC Award Promises, and What the Record Shows

The project aims to take the imager to TRL9, full industrial readiness, by February 2027. With five months left, QuantumDiamonds has a commercial product installed at two leading test laboratories abroad and a factory under construction. The company names its customers only as test houses; which chipmakers use the results, and whether sales cover costs, is not public.

1. Commercial systemDeliveredQDm.1 on sale.
2. Industrial pilotsDeliveredEurofins EAG, iST.
3. Production capacityUnder wayFirst section, July 2026.
4. TRL9PendingDue February 2027.

The Money

The EU grant covers 70% of the project. QuantumDiamonds' share capital rose in August 2025, according to North Data, which also lists state aid under digitalisation programmes of €1.19 million in 2023 and €1.80 million in 2026. The EIC Fund is not named among the investors in the 2026 equity round, and whether it invested under the blended award has not been announced. The company does not publish revenue.

What Cannot Be Checked

Why Europe Should Care

The European Chips Act was created to strengthen Europe's semiconductor supply chain. QuantumDiamonds is building a new category of inspection tool in Munich and selling it into the United States and Taiwan. The EIC grant came early, when the company had a lab prototype; the German state has now taken over as its largest public backer.

The Verdict

QuantumDiamonds and the EIC have not been asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on public records and published statements, linked throughout.