Oxford ion trap quantum computing company raises £30 million
On January 9, Oxford-based quantum computing startup Oxford Ionics secured £30 million in Series A funding [1] to expand its business. This brings the total amount of funds raised by the company to £37 million.
Oxford Ionics is founded by Dr. Tom Harty and Dr. Chris Ballance, both physics graduates and PhDs from the University of Oxford.
This round was led by Oxford Science Enterprises and Braavos Investment Advisers. The round was led by Oxford Science Enterprises and Braavos Investment Advisers.
Working on industrial solutions for quantum computing
Founded in 2019 at the University of Oxford, Oxford Ionics is said [2] to take a unique approach to designing and scaling one of the most promising quantum computing technologies, the captured ion. A method has been developed to overcome some of the barriers that hinder quantum computing, including scalability, size, integration, and performance. In the future, efforts will be made to move quantum computing "from the research lab to a true industrial solution".
Oxford Ionics' approach to quantum computing is to fabricate millions of 5 mm x 5 mm quantum bit chips on a 30 cm diameter semiconductor wafer. "Quantum bits make mistakes," Ballance said, so the company will use a "majority voting" approach to correct errors.
So far, captured-ion systems have relied primarily on lasers to control quantum bits. Instead of using lasers, Oxford Ionics' capture ion processors use a proprietary, patented electronic quantum bit control (EQC) system to control quantum bits. This enables the unparalleled quantum performance of individual atoms to be combined with the scalability and reliability of electronics integrated into a silicon chip. This approach not only provides the highest level of performance possible, but does so in a way that makes Oxford Ionics processors integrateable and scalable as standard.
In July 2022, Oxford Ionics and German chipmaker Infineon launched a partnership [3] in which their deal will reduce the cost of high-performance quantum technology, build high-performance and fully integrated quantum processing units, making them available to new markets.Balance said, "The first customers are expected to provide cloud access. Early applications will be in the financial markets, for portfolio optimization and hard material science problems such as drug design."
Through its partnership with Infineon, producing quantum processors at a standard semiconductor foundry, Oxford Ionics has demonstrated the potential of this approach in real-world environments.
Oxford Ionics said, "Our captured ion technology holds world records for the highest performance quantum operation, longest quantum coherence time and highest performance quantum network. Importantly, we have demonstrated that we can maintain this performance using chips fabricated on semiconductor production lines. "
[1]https://www.oxionics.com/news/announcing-our-%C2%A330m-series-a-funding
[3]https://www.oxionics.com/news/oxford-ionics-and-infineon-join-forces
