Network switch for Quantum Computers
Quantum computing is chasing one of the biggest performance boost in the history of technology, enabling unprecedented computational capabilities for a multitude of applications.
The perhaps most impressive prospect of the QC is in drug development, where the current time-to-market for a novel molecular agent is expressed in decades. With a QC, the development time for a novel drug could potentially be shortened to a few years. However, the wide-spread of the QC technologies is hindered by several factors, most of them relating to the complexity and cost of the QC architecture.
The EU-funded project Spectrum is developing a novel switching technology precisely to solve these challenging problems. QueSt reduces the volume of current wiring while increasing the thermal efficiency and scalability of quantum computers.
Problem
A bulky problem
There are several approaches to quantum computing under study, the most advanced among them being based on cryogenic technology: components that are required to work at temperatures close to absolute zero (-273 degrees Celsius). Qubits (or Quantum Bits), the heart of quantum computing, require a lot of wiring to communicate with other components, causing:
- Huge funding needed to acquire, upgrade and maintain the architecture:
CAPEX, up to 3 lines > 30 k euros per qubits. - Electronics-induced downtimes, , returning to required temperature after a switching event can take hours, due to thermal dissipation of current wiring.
- Bulky Hardware, as the number of Qubits in use increases, so does the number of cables and thus the volume of the cryostat to be cooled, driving up costs.
Solution
The missing component
QueST is poised to solve part of the technological pitfalls by delivering a novel QC component that is able to significantly reduce the number of wires and thus costs of the entire QC setup, by compacting the physical lines onto a solid-state device.
The Quantum sUpErconducting SwiTch (QueSt) can act as an interface between the external CMOS electronics and the internal quantum qubits through a chip for IN/OUT communication, without introducing any additional need to modify the rest of the QC architecture and reducing the need for physical cable lines.
The possibility of combining more switches inside the cryostat, alongside the above mentioned characteristics, will boost the usability of superconducting quantum computers, opening further commercial opportunities.
QueST is poised to solve part of the technological pitfalls by delivering a novel QC component that is able to significantly reduce the number of wires and thus costs of the entire QC setup, by compacting the physical lines onto a solid-state device.
The Quantum sUpErconducting SwiTch (QueSt) can act as an interface between the external CMOS electronics and the internal quantum qubits through a chip for IN/OUT communication, without introducing any additional need to modify the rest of the QC architecture and reducing the need for physical cable lines.
The possibility of combining more switches inside the cryostat, alongside the above mentioned characteristics, will boost the usability of superconducting quantum computers, opening further commercial opportunities.
Advantages
What makes QueSt different from other switches
Major benefits of Quantum sUpErconducting SwiTch (QueSt) developed in Spectrum are:
Low power dissipation
The lowest power dissipation available, less than 1 nW, reducing QC downtime after a single switching event from 95% to 99% of current values (~10 hours).
Control of multiple qubit configurations
An increase in measurable configurations with the same amount of RF control lines used today, reducing the footprint and cost of wiring by about 75 % over current values.
Voltage control and compatibility with CMOS systems
Integration of RSFQ (rapid single flux quantum) systems with existing telecommunications and CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) computing architectures, controlling a large number of output devices with one input signal.
High Switching Speed
Reduced switching times, up to an order of magnitude compared with the switching times of current state-of-the-art switching devices (> 10 ns).
Quantum technologies:
Low-power dissipation
QueSt is expected to dissipate almost no power (less than 1nW), reducing energy waste and downtime for QC. We envisage a reduction of the downtime after a single switching event from 95% up to 99% of its typical values (~ 10 hours).
Simultaneous control of multiple qubit configurations
this will increase the scalability and flexibility of the QC, allowing multiple measurement configurations with the same amount of control RF lines used nowadays but with reduced footprint and the cost of the wiring by about 75%.
Voltage control
our QueSt switch is based on voltage-driven technology, which makes it perfectly compatible with the existing CMOS, allowing smooth system integration and interoperability.
High switching speed
reduced switching time, i.e. at least one order of magnitude lower compared to a conventional CMOS, to perform ultrafast operations in a quantum processor.
Telecommunications and high-performance computing:
High telecommunication speed
QueSt can potentially work with frequencies up to 1 THz thanks to the usage of niobium-based superconductors, which makes QueSt suitable for the development of future 6G applications.
Integrability
the operational principle of QueSt makes it totally compatible with the state-of-the-art CMOS technology currently in use. Supporting the existing CMOS infrastructure with QueSt technology will enable boosting the performance of current TC networks.
Low power dissipation
QueSt can reduce the energy needed for the operation of large-scale TCs and High-Performance Computing (HPC) clusters by at least two orders of magnitude thanks to the use of superconductors.
