“Quantum electronics,” a term coined in the 1960s, originally referred to the use of natural quantum systems, atoms and molecules, to generate, amplify, and detect RF and microwave signals in maser devices. These early masers rapidly evolved into lasers, and the original field faded as conventional electronics came to dominate RF and microwave technology.

In recent years, however, quantum electronics has re-emerged, now centered on artificial quantum systems such as superconducting circuits for the generation, amplification, and detection of quantum microwave signals. A key bottleneck of these platforms is their reliance on ultra-low cryogenic temperatures (~10 mK), which severely limits usability and scalability, especially when interfacing with power-hungry subsystems like optics.

In this talk I will present an alternative route that avoids such extreme cooling requirements by employing modern diamond-based maser and “anti-maser” devices. Conceptually, this approach returns to the original maser idea, but uses a different kind of solid-state, atom-like quantum system. These new quantum platforms can operate at much higher temperatures than conventional masers while offering noise performance comparable to millikelvin superconducting circuits. This capability not only enables efficient manipulation of quantum microwave signals at elevated temperatures, but also allows selective mode cooling of microwave fields in superconducting resonators. In turn, this may permit their operation at temperatures of order 1 K and above, while retaining noise characteristics close to those of today’s millikelvin devices.