Semiconductor giant Infineon announces mass production of 100- quantum bit chips in 5 years
On July 6, German semiconductor giant Infineon Technologies AG (Infineon Technologies) announced a partnership with Oxford Ionics to build high-performance, fully integrated ion trap quantum processors (QPUs).
Infineon's ion trap devices
Oxford Ion's unique Electronic Quantum Bit Control (EQC) technology will be combined with Infineon's world-leading engineering and manufacturing capabilities, quantum technology expertise, to provide the foundation for the mass production of QPUs with hundreds of quantum bits over the next five years in order to move quantum technology from laboratory research to real industrial solutions.
Quantum computing opens up the next frontier for improving arithmetic power for many industries seeking to improve. Achieving this will require the development of quantum bit technologies that can be built at scale, while controlling an increasing number of quantum bits and reducing error levels. Oxford Ion's EQC technology provides a way to integrate trapped ion (ion trap) quantum bits into Infineon's proven semiconductor processes.
Oxford Ion designed, Infineon manufactured ion trap wafers
"The great challenge for quantum computing is to scale while improving performance." Chris Ballance, co-founder of Oxford Ion, said [1], "Some technologies can be manufactured at scale but cannot perform computing, and some can perform computing but cannot scale. Our electronic control technology can do both. Working with Infineon and its proven semiconductor processes, we will be able to enhance the accessibility of commercial QPUs. These processors require far fewer quantum bits to solve useful problems than other technologies already available."
"Infineon will leverage the pioneering work of Oxford Ion to scale appropriately toward meaningful quantum bit counting and low error rates. Infineon's ion traps can be combined with our predictable, repeatable and reliable manufacturing and assembly capabilities to achieve this goal." said Stephan Schaecher, Director of New Applications, Innovation and Quantum Computing, Infineon Technologies Industry.
The first Oxford Ion devices will enable cloud access by the end of 2022, providing commercial users with access to these cutting-edge quantum computers. Fully integrated devices with sufficient high performance will be available within two years and scale to hundreds of quantum bits; the ultimate goal of Infineon and Oxford Ion is to offer fully integrated individual QPUs within five years: hundreds of quantum bits networked into a quantum supercomputing cluster using Oxford Ion's quantum networking technology.
About Infineon's Ion Trap Division
Infineon's ion trap technology accelerates the development of its quantum computers, with related research starting in 2016 at Villach's fab. Infineon industrializes and combines novel materials and technologies to provide an advanced technology platform for predictable, repeatable and reliable custom ion traps. Based on this platform, Infineon collaborates with partners in low temperature control electronics and optical integration, paving the way for thousands of quantum bits.
Today, Infineon is pursuing various approaches to quantum computing. In addition to ion trap technology, the company is also active in superconducting and semiconductor-based quantum bits. As a founding member of the Quantum Technology and Applications Consortium (QUTAC), Infineon is taking this topic from technology to usable applications.
About Oxford Ionics
Oxford Ionics is a high-performance quantum computing company providing solutions to create the most powerful, accurate and reliable quantum computers. By combining the world's highest quality quantum bits (captured ions) with unique noise-free electron quantum bit control technology, Oxford Ionics achieves the highest performance ever achieved when building chips on semiconductor production lines.
Reference link：
[1]https://www.eenewseurope.com/en/infineon-teams-for-commercial-ion-trap-quantum-processors/
[2]https://www.infineon.com/cms/en/about-infineon/press/market-news/2022/INFXX202207-098.html
