This milestone, published in the Nature journal, is a critical step towards integrating Diraq’s silicon ‘quantum dot’ technology with the mature processes of the semiconductor industry to achieve utility-scale quantum computers that can tackle problems with true societal and commercial value.
Quantum bits (or ‘qubits’) must be held at cryogenic temperatures, very close to absolute zero (–273.15 °C), to preserve their information. But they also need to be controlled and measured by complex electronics built from the complementary metaloxide semiconductor (CMOS) circuits found in laptops and smart phones.
Unlike qubits, these circuits are usually designed to work at room temperature, not at cryogenic temperatures. If they are placed close to the qubits, they can heat them, degrading their performance. The control system can be separated from the qubits by long cables, but the millions of qubits required for practical quantum computing render this solution impossible.
Emergence Quantum has addressed this challenge by designing ‘cryo-CMOS’ technology that functions at millikelvin temperatures, and together, Diraq and Emergence have now demonstrated that this cryo-CMOS control circuitry does not compromise the performance of Diraq’s qubits.
With these ‘hot qubits’ in hand, and Emergence Quantum’s cryo-CMOS control solution to minimise additional heating, Diraq is putting itself in a good position to scale up to the millions of qubits required for practical quantum computing.
The ultimate goal is a quantum computer like no other — one capable of accelerating progress in areas such as drug discovery to enhance global health, and the design of innovative materials that can combat climate change.
