(TechCrunch) Menlo Microsystems, is ready to bring its revolutionary new switches to market, with huge implications for everything from 5G technologies to quantum computing.
Using a novel alloy, Menlo Micro is able to reduce the size of the switches it makes to 50 microns by 50 microns, or roughly the width of a human hair. This miniaturization can enable hardware manufacturers to come up with completely new designs for a host of products that used to require much larger components.
Quantum computing companies are interested in the technology because of its durability. For companies developing quantum computers, the value proposition is not just about the size of the MEMS, but the durability of the alloy that Menlo Micro has developed. “For quantum, you have to have devices that operate at close to absolute zero. Semiconductors don’t work down to those temperatures so they use old-fashioned mechanical relays [which] can take hours to get back to temperature,” Giovanniello said. “Our materials are so robust they work [at temperatures] down to a few milikelvins.”
Menlo Microsystems Brings Semiconductor Tech to Switch with Implications for Quantum Computing
