Universal Quantum computers could replace supercomputers within 5 years

Some researchers are predicting that the market for “universal” quantum computers that do everything a supercomputer can do plus everything a supercomputer can not do — in a chip that fits in the palm of your hand — are on the verge of emerging. The rise of quantum computing may be as important a shift as John von Neumann’s stored program-and-data concept.

Here are some of the scientists and breakthroughs that will enable this shift.

Robert Schoelkopf (Yale, Quantum Circuits inc) claims a number of “world’s firsts,” the latest of which is the longest “coherence time” for a quantum superposition.

Multilayer microwave integrated quantum circuit (left) uses silicon wafers with features etched using MEMS techniques to create enclosures that serve as high-Q resonators as well as providing shielding. Superconducting metalization (blue) covers the walls of these enclosures to provide low-loss wafer-to-wafer bonding. A cross-section of the rectangular cavity resonator (upper right) shows interlayer aperture coupling between the cavity and transmission lines above. 3D superconducting transmission lines (lower right) could be constructed using membranes (green) in the MEMS structure where qubits and act as a compact low-loss quantum bus.
(Source: Yale)

Nature – Extending the lifetime of a quantum bit with error correction in superconducting circuits

The ultimate goal of D-Wave, Quantum Circuits, Rigetti Quantum Computing, IBM, Google Labs, Microsoft Labs, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the European Union, Imec (Belgium), Rikken Research (Japan), many other worldwide computer makers and hundreds of independent research groups is this: a “universal quantum computer” that can perform tasks that supercomputers perform — but in the blink-of-an-eye instead of hours or days — along with all the so-called NP-hard (non-deterministic polynomial-time hard) problems that no supercomputer can solve no matter how much time you give it today. (Plus as a bonus universal quantum computers can create impossible to crack encryption algorithms).

Quantum Circuits is perhaps furthest along in this quest measured by the number of “world’s first’s” it has accumulated plus one more thing — a real-life product. Despite the fact that thousands of research labs worldwide are researching the same problems in quantum computing, there are surprisingly few products — only D-Wave’s “optimizer” and Quantum Circuits’ “amplifier.”

QCI is focusing on the quantum circuit model for quantum computation, which enables universal and fault-tolerant operations using error correction. QCI technology relies on quantum circuits – electrical devices using superconducting Josephson junctions that can act as solid-state quantum bits, or qubits.

QCI was founded by three scientists from the Department of Applied Physics at Yale University: Michel Devoret, Luigi Frunzio, and Robert Schoelkopf. They are world-leading experts in quantum devices and quantum information processing with solid-state devices, with a decades-long record of innovation in new devices, techniques, and fundamental concepts. Their group has produced many scientific firsts, including the development of a “quantum bus” for entangling qubits with wires, the first implementation of a quantum algorithm with a solid-state device, and the demonstration of solid-state qubits with scalable levels of coherence.

What does a quantum amplifier do? Well one of the peculiarities of quantum qubits is their fragility. Almost anything — from heat to a cell phone’s microwaves — will cause their state of superposition to collapse (called decoherence) spoiling their ability to calculate. Even reading their value destroys them (which is why quantum encryption codes are uncrackable). To maintain “coherence” in the superposition state of a qubit, quantum devices are supercooled to almost absolute zero — to keep their atoms from vibrating — and shielded from every kind of electromagnetic waves in existence. Nevertheless, even so after decades of work the state of coherence has only been able to be boosted from nanoseconds to milliseconds, when ultimately its coherence needs to be measured in tenths of seconds (at least).

The ability of Quantum Circuits amplifier led to its latest “world’s first” — an error-corrected quantum memory that can sense when a qubit has gone awry into decoherence and reinstate it to its former state of superposition. The amplifier and the error correction unit are both essential elements being sought by labs worldwide to eventually build the holy-grail — the aforementioned “universal” quantum computer. And Quantum Circuits plans to make available those functioning units needed by other labs as products.

From the accompanying images of Quantum Circuits “suspended” Josephson Junction (JJ) superconducting transistors — configured in pairs called a transmon — you can see that one of the keys to their success is the ability to harness microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) techniques to make their fragile qubits more bullet-proof. The techniques they use to etch their suspended JJs is licensed from Bosch — its well-known dry reactive ion etching (DRIE) process that here evacuates the silicon underneath the JJ. This is one ingredient in the development of a new technology for integrated quantum circuits that the team is pursuing.

Scanning electron microscope (SEM) image of using a MEMS etch to suspend a transmon (top) with a detailed view of the supporting pedestals (lower right) and a detailed view of the suspended Al-AlOx-Al Josephson junction (lower right).
(Source: Yale)

“You can think of our qubit circuits as artificial atoms that display, at the macroscopic level, the same quantum effects that all matter exhibits at the atomic level,” Schoelkopf told EE Times. “We have now demonstrated the prototypes of all the subsystems we need to build a universal quantum computer. Now it is just a matter of time. Within the next few years we will scale up to the quantum equivalent of the first digital electronic computers. But even with only 50 or 100 qubits, these early systems will already unlock the true power of quantum information, and can have a computation power for certain tasks that exceeds even the largest conventional supercomputers.”

Others

D-Wave which built a special purpose quantum computer from available technologies. They are selling a 2000 qubit special purpose optimization problem solver.

Rigetti’s group is getting University of California at Berkeley’s graduates to build a universal quantum computer from the ground up.

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