Intel boosts quantum computing with Tunnel Falls, its first silicon spin qubit chip

June 15 (Portaltic/EP) –

Intel has released his new chip focused on quantum research, Tunnel FallsHer first silicon spin qubit devicewhich has been made available to the academic community to explore this technology and accelerate research development.

A qubit (or quantum bit) is the basic unit of information in quantum computing. While a bit can only represent a single binary value – that is, 0 or 1 – the qubit can represent a 0, a 1, or any ratio of 0 and 1 in the superposition of both states.

In this way, it allows the quantum algorithms process information in a much shorter time than the time required by a classical system. For this reason, quantum computing is becoming used to carry out discoveries in different fields such as health care, energy or environmental systems.

Within this framework, Intel has launched Tunnel Falls which, as described in a statement, is the company’s first silicon spin qubit device. Specifically, it is a 12-qubit silicon chip made on 300-millimeter wafers in the manufacturing plant D1.

This device Leverages Intel’s most advanced industrial transistor manufacturing capabilitieswith technologies such as extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography and gate and contact processing techniques.

As Intel explains, in the case of silicon spin qubits, the information – the 0s and 1s – is encoded in the spin (up or down) of a single electron. This translates into that each qubit device is “essentially a single-electron transistor”. As a result, Intel can manufacture it using a flow similar to that used in a Metal Oxide Complementary Semiconductor Logic Processing Line (CMOS).

Also, another advantage of silicon spin qubits is that they outperform other qubit technologies for “the synergy it offers with cutting-edge transistors.” This is because they are the size of a transistor and therefore they are “up to a million times smaller” than other types of qubits, which measure about 50 square nanometers. The size of the silicon spin qubits thus allows a “more efficient” scaling, according to Intel.

Following this line, Intel also benefits from being able to use CMOS manufacturing lines to produce this chip, since it enables the use of “innovative” process control techniques for “improve performance and performance“.

In fact, in the case of the 12-qubit Tunnel Falls, a rate has been achieved 95 percent yield on the entire wafer, as well as voltage uniformity similar to that of CMOS logic processes. In addition, each wafer provides 24,000 quantum dot devices.

For all these reasons, as stated by the Director of Quantum Hardware at Intel, Jim Clarke, the launch of the new chip is “the next step in Intel’s strategy to build a complete commercial quantum computing system”.

COLLABORATION WITH THE QUANTUM RESEARCH COMMUNITY

Intel has put Tunnel Falls available to the quantum research community in order to promote the development of this technology, facilitating its research. To do this, the company is collaborating with the Laboratory of Physical Sciences (LPS) from the University of Maryland and with the College Park’s Qubit Collaboratory (LQC).

As detailed by the technology, academic institutions do not have large-volume manufacturing equipment like Intel. In this sense, by facilitating Tunnel Falls, researchers can start working with this chip in their quantum computing projects, instead of having to make their own.

As a consequence, this collaboration makes possible a wider range of experimentslearn more about the fundamentals of qubits and quantum dots, and develop new techniques to work with devices with multiple qubitsas Intel has qualified.

Specifically, Intel is collaborating with LQC on the program, Qubits for Computing Foundry (QCF) through the United States Army Bureau of Investigation. With this cooperation, it will help democratize silicon spin qubits allowing researchers to gain experience working with this technology.

The first quantum laboratories to participate in the program are the LPS, Sandia National Laboratories, the University of Rochester, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. But, in addition, LQC continues to work with Intel to bring Tunnel Falls to other universities and research laboratories. Likewise, the information obtained in these investigations and experiments will be shared with the community for further progress.

For his part, he LPS head of Quantum Information Science, Charles Tahanhas detailed that the LPS Qubit Collaboratory, together with the Army Research Office, intends to address the “difficult challenges facing qubit development”, as well as “develop the next generation of scientists who will create the qubits of tomorrow”.

In the same way, from Sandia National Laboratories has valued the possibility of using the Tunnel Falls chip. “The device is a flexible platform that allows researchers watermelon quantum compare directly different encodings of qubits and develop new modes of operation of thesewhich was not possible before,” said Dr. and technical team member Dwight Luhman.