Zurich Instruments
Zurich Instruments Ltd. is a privately owned company developing and selling advanced test and measurement instruments[1] equipped with software for dynamic signal analysis. The company is based in Technopark, Zurich, Switzerland, and has two international subsidiaries operating in Shanghai and Boston. Its focus is to deliver feature-rich tools to academic and industrial research and development organizations.
| File:Zurich Instruments(logo).png | |
| Company type | Corporation |
|---|---|
| Industry | Electronic Equipment |
| Founded | 2008 |
| Founder | Sadik Hafizovic Flavio Heer Beat Hofstetter |
| Headquarters | Zurich, Switzerland |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Sadik Hafizovic (CEO) Flavio Heer (CTO) Stephan Koch (VP Sales) Adrian Messmer (VP R&D) Jan Benhelm (CMO) |
| Products | Lock-in Amplifiers Quantum Computing Control Systems Arbitrary Waveform Generators Impedance Analyzers Boxcar Averagers Phased-locked Loops (PLL) |
Number of employees | 75 |
| Website | www.zhinst.com |
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History
Zurich Instruments was founded in April 2008 as a spin-off by a graduate trio from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich).[1] Sensing a large market demand for better lock-in amplifiers, Sadik Hafizovic, an engineer by training, physicist Flavio Heer, and Beat Hofstetter, a programmer with a background in arts, transformed a university project into a company.
Seed financing was gained from startup competition prizes and a research project for ETH Zurich. Since then, Zurich Instruments' growth has been self-financed.[2]
The company's first product, the HF2LI, a 50 MHz lock-in amplifier, was introduced in 2009. By 2015 two further lock-in amplifiers, the UHFLI and MFLI, had been introduced, covering the frequency ranges from DC to 600 MHz and DC to 500 kHz/5 MHz respectively.[3]
Since 2016 Zurich Instruments has also been developing quantum computing instrumentation technology in close collaboration with the groups of Prof. Andreas Wallraff at ETH Zurich[4] and Prof. Leo DiCarlo at Delft University of Technology.[5] In 2018, Zurich Instruments commercialized the first Quantum Computing Control System (QCCS), which integrates a multi-channel Arbitrary Waveform Generator (HDAWG), a Quantum Analyzer (UHFQA) and a Programmable Quantum System Controller (PQSC).[6]
The product portfolio also includes impedance analyzers, phase-locked loops, digitizers and boxcar averagers.[7] All products utilize the instrument control software LabOne, that provides platform-independent instrument control through a web-based user interface as well as a variety of APIs.
Main applications
- Optics & Photonics
- Scanning Probe Microscopy
- Quantum Computing & Sensing
- Nanophysics
- Sensors & Actuators
- Engineering & Semiconductors
- Bioengineering & Med-technology
- Electrochemistry
See also
- High frequency
- Lock-in amplifier
- Dielectric spectroscopy
- Boxcar averager
- Phase-locked Loop (PLL)
- Impedance analyzer
- Arbitrary waveform generator (AWG)
- Quantum technology
References
- ^ a b "ETH Spin-off Companies"
- ^ "From a Swiss lab to a worldwide leader in scientific instrumentation"
- ^ "Zurich Instruments - Company"
- ^ "Instruments for high-end research"
- ^ "Leonardo DiCarlo's profile"
- ^ "Zurich Instruments launches first commercial Quantum Computing Control System"
- ^ "The Latest Innovations in Impedance Analyzers"
External links
- Zurich Instruments home page
- ETH Zurich
- Application notes from Zurich Instruments
- Principles of lock-in detection and the state of the art, White Paper, 2016, from Zurich Instruments
- European FET Flagship project OpenSuperQ