UK company launches quantum chip designed for commercial production
Sussex-based quantum computing company Universal Quantum has launched the iQPU, a quantum chip designed to make the production of quantum computers practical and scalable.
The integrated quantum processing unit created by the company features the largest trapped-ion compute system in the world, and combines this with ultra-low noise control and modular chip-to-chip interconnect to solve some of the hardest scaling challenges facing quantum computing today.
Universal Quantum calls its new chip a key piece to solving the puzzle of scalable quantum computing, noting that it is designed from the outset to scale.
What is a quantum chip?
Unlike standard computer chips which use electrical charges in transistors, quantum processors use the sub-atomic behaviour of particles to process information orders of magnitude more efficiently. Instead of computing using bits that are either 0 or 1, they leverage quantum bits (qubits) that can exist as a superposition of both possibilities.
This makes them potentially far more powerful than standard computer chips, especially at solving difficult mathematical problems.
For this reason, many researchers and computer scientists are concerned over the potential ability for quantum computers to break the legacy encryption that underpins modern digital society, leading to a hasty surge of research into post-quantum cryptography.
While the advent of quantum computing may have a seismic impact on digital communications and encryption, it may also unlock new frontiers in medicine, physics, AI, and beyond thanks to the step change in computing power it promises.
Scaling quantum compute for production
The trapped-ion architecture used by Universal Quantum was chosen with commercial manufacturing in mind, as it can support fault-tolerant quantum computers.
The chip itself is fabricated on a 200mm semiconductor foundry line using industry-standard tools, with the goal of creating a manufacturing process that can deliver quantum chips repeatedly at low cost, and which can be integrated into existing semiconductor supply chains.
The company has developed a modular interconnect technology it calls UQConnect, which allows these quantum chips to connect together and operate as one larger computer. Under this design, if a machine needs more compute capacity, more iQPUs can be connected to the existing infrastructure.
Universal Quantum said it has delivered a complete scaling strategy for quantum computing, with its architecture capable of supporting efficient error correction while avoiding the impracticalities associated with other approaches to scaling compute.
“The question is no longer whether quantum computing can work, but how we build enough high-quality qubits to solve problems that matter,” said universal Quantum CEO Sebastian Weidt.
“The iQPU allows us to combine our world record interconnect technology with a chip architecture that can control qubits at scale and is manufactured in commercial silicon foundries.”
“It opens up an exciting route for us from today’s systems to the utility-scale quantum computers the world needs,” he said.
Universal Quantum said its iQPU chip would be integrated into systems it is building for the German Aerospace Centre and its other customers.
