Insider Brief
- Equal1 announced advancements in silicon-based quantum computing, including high-performance qubit metrics and a scalable quantum controller chip.
- A six-qubit array achieved 99.4% single-qubit fidelity and 98.4% two-qubit fidelity using a silicon-germanium CMOS-compatible process.
- The UnityQ Quantum-System-on-Chip platform features a cryogenic controller chip with adaptive error correction, enabling scalability to millions of qubits.
Equal1, a company focused on silicon-powered quantum computing, announced advances in its quantum technology, showcasing performance improvements in silicon qubit arrays and introducing a new quantum controller chip. The developments aim to support scalable quantum computing using existing silicon infrastructure, according to a company blog post.
Silicon Qubit Metrics
The company reported achieving the following metrics on a six-qubit array fabricated using a silicon-germanium CMOS-compatible process:
- Single-qubit gate fidelity of 99.4% with a gate speed of 84 nanoseconds.
- Two-qubit gate fidelity of 98.4% with a gate speed of 72 nanoseconds.
These results are positioned as a step toward full-scale, error-corrected quantum processors that can be produced by conventional silicon foundries.
Elena Blokhina, Equal1’s Chief Scientific Officer said: “Today marks a critical inflection point for Equal1 and the quantum computing industry. Equal1 has always believed that silicon is the vehicle to scale quantum computers and today, with these world leading qubit and control chip results, we have taken a major step towards this vision.”
Nodar Samkharadze, Equal1’s Chief Quantum Architect said: “This result demonstrates the massive benefit of silicon qubits – the ability to achieve the performance required for scaling in two key areas – fidelity and speed of quantum
Cryogenic Quantum Controller Chip
Equal1 also introduced what it describes as a multi-tile Quantum Controller Chip within its UnityQ Quantum-System-on-Chip platform. Operating at 300 millikelvin, the chip integrates Arm Cortex processors and supports Equal1’s Qubit Adaptive Error Correction system. This system is designed to enable real-time error correction and adaptability for various error correction algorithms.
Equal1 states that these developments contribute to its roadmap for scaling quantum systems to millions of qubits.
Brendan Barry, Equal1’s Chief Technology Officer said: “Equal1 is on a mission to deliver scalable Quantum computing using commercial silicon CMOS, and our partnership with ARM is testament to that approach. We are excited about the collaboration underway with ARM as we look to deliver our integrated UnityQ processor roadmap in the years ahead”.
Dermot O’Driscoll, Vice President of Product Solutions, Infrastructure Line of Business at Arm said: “Quantum computing has the potential to revolutionize data processing for multiple uses, ranging from complex financial modeling to life-saving drug discovery. With the integration of Arm technology at cryogenic temperatures, Equal1 is at the forefront of building a next-generation Quantum System-on-Chip, and we look forward to continuing our work with them to advance the future of quantum computing.”
These combined achievements, along with Equal1’s innovative architecture which enables all-to-all connectivity, show the benefits of the silicon approach – delivering high quality gates along with the speed required for next-generation algorithms to support real world applications, all enabled by existing semiconductor CMOS processes.
Dirk Leipold, Equal1’s President and Chief Physicist commented: “The vision for Equal1 has been decades in the making. I am very proud of what we have accomplished over the past six years, and I am excited about what the future holds as we launch the era of scalable quantum computing.”
More detail on these results will be available in the technical paper on ArXiv. Until the paper is available here.
