The Quantum Revolution is here. European researchers have collaborated with Intel to mass-produce quantum processing technology on 300mm wafers. Research in this arena has been going on at full speed. At this rate, we can expect quantum technology to become mainstream in the future… sooner than expected!
At Intel’s D1 production facility in Hillsboro, Oregon, the QuTech team, which includes Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) and the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), successfully built the first silicon qubits at scale. On a single wafer, their method can produce more than 10,000 arrays of multiple silicon-spin qubits with a 95% yield. This breakthrough outperforms today’s standard university and laboratory processes in terms of both qubit count and yield.
Quantum dots embedded in a Si/SiO2 interface provide excellent tunnel barrier control, which is critical for fault-tolerant two-qubit gates. The few-electron phase of single-spin qubit operation utilising magnetic resonance reveals relaxation periods of over 1 s at 1 T and coherence times of over 3 ms.
To make silicon-spin qubits, the procedure employs all-optical lithography, the same technology used to make Intel’s CMOS chips. This is a significant step forward for quantum processors, demonstrating that qubits may someday coexist with conventional chips in the same industrial manufacturing facilities.
“Quantum computing has the potential to deliver exponential performance for certain applications in the high-performance compute space,” said James Clarke, director of Quantum Hardware at Intel. “Our research proves that a full-scale quantum computer is not only achievable but also could be produced in a present-day chip factory. We look forward to continuing to work with QuTech to apply our expertise in silicon fabrication to unlock the full potential of quantum.”
Intel’s first peer-reviewed research demonstrating the successful manufacture of qubits on 300mm silicon was published in the journal Nature Electronics. You can read the entire research here.
