UCLA Engineering Faculty Receives NSF Grant to Improve Quantum Computing Chips

(HPCWire) Kang Wang, a UCLA electrical and computer engineering professor and his colleagues received a one-year, $920,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop a new class of interconnect technology for future quantum computing.
Quantum computers offer the tantalizing promise of unprecedented computing power and speed — far exceeding even that of today’s best supercomputers. The NSF’s Convergence Accelerator program supports multidisciplinary research efforts to realize such advancements.
Led by Wang, Raytheon Professor of Electrical Engineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, the project will eplore how to improve quantum computing chips.
One of the current roadblocks lies in quantum interconnects, which involve the transfer of delicate quantum information from one part of a computer chip to another. In a typical computer, interconnects are the lines that connect multiple transistors to one another and complete a circuit in a computer. In the quantum realm, these interconnects must be carefully engineered to isolate them from ambient noise to protect the fragile quantum bits (or qubits) that store and process quantum information.
Quantum signals passing through this material move only in one direction, allowing information to transfer externally while blocking noise that could interfere with the quantum system.
The proposed new quantum computer chips that use these materials in their interconnects could overcome several technical hurdles in quantum computing, such as improving performance, reducing the footprint of hardware and connecting different quantum computers into a larger network.