Quantum Design, Inc.

Quantum Design, Inc. manufactures specialized laboratory instrumentation for materials science research and quantum measurement applications, selling cryogenic systems, magnetometers, photon detectors, and related precision equipment to federal agencies primarily as a prime contractor on firm-fixed-price purchase orders with no set-aside designations. The San Diego-based for-profit corporation operates on full-and-open competition, competing on technical merit and established relationships rather than small business set-asides, though it qualifies for total small business designation on occasional Naval Research Laboratory orders.

Quantum Design's customer base concentrates heavily on civilian research agencies. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) leads by volume and dollars — 41 awards accounting for $6.7 million in combined potential value, representing 47% of the company's recent prime award total — with work spanning cryocooler maintenance, dilution refrigerators, SQUID magnetometer upgrades, liquid helium recovery systems, and precision detector systems. The Department of the Navy's Office of Naval Research (ONR) ranks second with 24 awards and $2.5 million combined potential value, followed by the Air Force Materiel Command Research Laboratory (10 awards, $2.1 million) and the Navy Bureau of Naval Personnel (12 awards, $1 million). Together, these four agencies account for 90% of recent combined potential value, with NIST and ONR dominating the footprint. The vendor has served 21 distinct federal agencies across a five-year span, but the concentration signal is clear: Quantum Design's federal business centers on NIST maintenance and upgrades, plus ONR precision-measurement procurements for Navy laboratories.

Quantum Design's footprint aligns entirely with NAICS 334516 (Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing) and related measuring-instrument categories; 81 of 143 awards fall under analytical laboratory instrument manufacturing alone. Recent named work includes a $644,289 optical access dilution refrigerator for NIST (September 2026, place of performance Great Britain), a $383,877.73 liquid helium recovery system for NIST (February 2023–September 2025), a $224,900 SQUID magnetometer upgrade for NIST (May 2025), $132,450 dilution refrigerator system for ONR (December 2023), and recurring repair and maintenance orders across both agencies valued between $8,795 and $101,380. The company also supplies specialized detection systems — SEM direct electron detectors, time-correlated photon counters, vacuum detectors with installation — typically through single-award or sole-source determinations when the customer specifies Quantum Design equipment or upgrades.

Activity over the past five years has been modest and lumpy: two awards in 2022, three in 2023, eight in 2024, four in 2025, and seven in 2026 year-to-date. Four awards (combined potential value $793 thousand) face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, creating limited recompete exposure. Quantum Design operates almost entirely as a prime (97% of awards) with minimal subcontractor footprint; the source identifies only four sub-awards, three routed through Triad National Security, LLC at Los Alamos National Laboratory for laboratory and scientific equipment supply, and one through the University of Dayton for terminal burst point control research. The company holds no seats on government-wide contract vehicles such as GWACs or BPAs; work flows through individual purchase orders and small IDICs managed by NIST, ONR, and Air Force Materiel Command, with no meaningful task-order momentum on any single parent vehicle. Combined obligated dollars ($19.6 million) exceed combined potential value ($14.4 million), indicating a history of contract modifications and supplemental funding on established relationships rather than rapid new-work acquisition.