(SpectrumIEEE) Heat is the enemy for most quantum computers. Heat creates error in the qubits that make a quantum computer tick, scuttling the operations the computer is carrying out. So quantum computers need to be kept very cold, just above absolute zero.
Researchers from than a half dozen companies and universities recently presented new ways to run circuits at cryogenic temperatures. Here are three such efforts:
1) Google’s cryogenic control circuit could start shrinking quantum computers: Google, researchers have developed a cryogenic integrated circuit for controlling the qubits, connecting them with other electronics. The Google team actually first unveiled their work back in 2019, but they’re continuing to scale up the technology, with an eye for building larger quantum computers.Google’s device operates at 4 kelvins inside the refrigerator, just slightly warmer than the qubits that are about 50 centimeters away. That could drastically shrink what are now room-sized racks of electronics.
2) Cryogenic low-noise amplifiers make reading qubits easier: A key part of a quantum computer are the electronics to read out the qubits. On their own, those qubits emit weak RF signals. Enter the low-noise amplifier (LNA), which can boost those signals and make the qubits far easier to read. It’s not just quantum computers that benefit from cryogenic LNAs; radio telescopes and deep-space communications networks use them, too.
Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, are among those trying to make cryo-LNAs. Their circuit uses high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs), which are especially useful for rapidly switching and amplifying current. The Chalmers researchers use transistors made from indium phosphide (InP), a familiar material for LNAs, though gallium arsenide is more common commercially. Jan Grahn, a professor at Chalmers University of Technology, states that InP HEMTs are ideal for the deep freeze, because the material does an even better job of conducting electrons at low temperatures than at room temperature.
3) mec researchers are pruning those cables: Any image of a quantum computer is dominated by the byzantine cabling. Those cables connect the qubits to their control electronics, reading out of the states of the qubits and feeding back inputs. Some of those cables can be weeded out by an RF multiplexer (RF MUX), a circuit which can control the signals to and from multiple qubits. And researchers at imec have developed an RF MUX that can join the qubits in the fridge.
This circuit sits right next to the qubits, deep in the cold heart of the dilution refrigerator. Further up and away, researchers can connect other devices, such as LNAs, and other control circuits. This setup could make it less necessary for each individual qubit to have its own complex readout circuit, and make it much easier to build complex quantum computers with much larger numbers of qubits