Nanoscribe has officially inaugurated its Shanghai Quantum X demolab. The event on December 26, 2025 marked the official commissioning of the Quantum X align system, making the company’s next-generation Aligned Two-Photon Lithography technology available for hands-on experience in China. The event brought together leading industry and academic experts, highlighting Nanoscribe’s growing presence and long-term commitment to the Chinese market.
The centerpiece of the new demolab in Shanghai is the Quantum X align, a high-performance Two-Photon Polymerization (2PP) system designed for high-resolution 3D laser lithography with automated alignment on fibers, chips, and wafers.
Speaking remotely from the company’s headquarters in Germany, Martin Hermatschweiler, CEO and Co-founder of Nanoscribe, emphasized the strategic relevance of China as a key innovation and engineering hub. With a rapidly expanding ecosystem in photonics, optics, and advanced manufacturing, China plays a central role with its drive for innovation and transfer of scientific findings into applications.
"The Shanghai Quantum X demolab is more than a local facility – it represents a milestone in our long-term commitment to the Chinese market," said Hermatschweiler. "By providing access to high-throughput two-photon lithography instrumentation, we enable our customers to accelerate development cycles and bridge the gap from academic proof of concept to industrial-scale production. This is how we actively support the transition from ‘lab to fab’,” he concluded.
In a technical keynote, Dr. Wanyin Cui, General Manager of Nanoscribe China, outlined how the Quantum X align addresses key challenges in high-precision microfabrication through Nanoscribe’s proprietary lithography technologies.
Two-Photon Grayscale Lithography (2GL®) extends conventional Two-Photon Polymerization (2PP) by enabling continuous voxel modulation within a single scan process. By combining sub-micron resolution with substantially increased throughput, 2GL® boosts printing speeds by a factor of 10 to 60 compared to traditional approaches at even superior shape accuracy due to more than 4,000 gray levels. This allows the efficient fabrication of complex freeform micro-optics and functional surfaces with optical-grade precision.
Aligned 2-Photon Lithography (A2PL®) enables highly precise 3D printing directly onto existing components and prepatterned substrates such as optical fibers, photonic chips, and wafers. With a lateral alignment accuracy of down to 100 nm relative to markers and fiducials, A2PL® ensures highly accurate placement of optical couplers, significantly reducing coupling losses and enabling scalable photonic packaging workflows.
The event also served as a high-level symposium. Leading scholars and industry experts presented their cutting-edge research and developments on a variety of topics, including photonic chip coupling, mechanical metamaterials, X-ray optics, and AI-assisted 3D micro-printing.
Following the technical sessions, Yufang Zhu, APAC Service Manager, conducted a live demonstration of the Quantum X align. The demo showcased the machine's capability to print complex structures with optical-grade surface roughness (Ra ≤ 10 nm) and low-tolerance shape accuracy (Sa ≤ 200 nm), proving its readiness for demanding applications in optical communications, AI infrastructure, and medical devices.
The Shanghai Quantum X demolab is now fully operational and offers a dedicated environment for hands-on technology evaluation and collaboration. Customers and partners can access live product demonstrations, feasibility studies, application development support, and targeted training sessions tailored to their specific requirements, allowing users to validate process performance and application feasibility at an early stage.
Nanoscribe welcomes customers, partners, interested parties, experts, and other stakeholders in China to experience the state of the art in 3D microfabrication. These services in Shanghai reinforce Nanoscribe’s position as a trusted technology partner in China and support the country's drive for innovation utilizing 3D microfabrication.
