Objectives

Future emerging quantum technologies

Quantum technologies have the potential to solve computational problems that are unsolvable with the classical computers (including supercomputers) of today, such as the synthesis of new drugs to treat incurable diseases, and many other open complex challenges in many other fields of Science and Technology.
The current developments of hardware quantum technologies are primarily limited to integrated qubits fabricated in research laboratories and operating at extreme cryogenic temperatures in the order of tens or hundreds milli-Kelvin, with control and readout circuits external to the chip with the qubits, i.e. the quantum chip.

The extreme cryogenic temperatures and the inherent limitations to the integration due to the multi-chip approach, introduce dramatic barriers to the scalability of hardware technologies necessary to secure the integration, control and readout of hundreds, thousands and even million qubits required for the developments of future emerging quantum computing technologies.

Scientific objectives of IQubits

The general objective of the interdisciplinary project IQubits is to break through these major scientific and technological barriers by developing integrated qubits, control and readout circuits that can operate at higher cryogenic temperatures and can be integrated together onto the same chip in commercial ultra-scaled silicon technologies, so paving the way for moving quantum technologies from research laboratories to semiconductor foundries for large-scale production.

In particular, the scientific objectives are:

  1. Developing and demonstrating experimentally high-temperature (high-T) Si and SiGe electron/hole-spin qubits and qubit integrated circuits (ICs) in commercial 22nm Fully-Depleted Silicon-on-Insulator (FDSOI) CMOS foundry technology as the enabling fundamental building blocks of quantum computing technologies;
  2. Verifying the scalability of these qubits to 10nm dimensions through fabrication experiments;
  3. Proving through atomistic simulations that, at 2nm dimensions, they are suitable for 300K operation.

The proposed 22nm FDSOI qubit ICs consist of coupled quantum-dot electron and hole spin qubits, placed in the atomic-scale channel of multi-gate n- and p-MOSFETs, and of 60-240GHz spin control/readout circuits integrated on the same die in state-of-the-art FDSOI CMOS foundry technology. To assess the impact of future CMOS scaling, more aggressively scaled Si-channel SOI and nitride-channel qubit structures will also be designed and fabricated in two experimental processes with 10nm gate half pitch. The latter will be developed in this project. The plan is for the III-nitrides (III-N) qubits to be ultimately grown on a SOI wafer, to be compatible with CMOS. Because of their larger bandgap, III-N hold a better prospective than Si and SiGe for qubits with larger coupling energy and mode energy splitting, and 300K operation. As a radical breakthrough, the fabricated qubits will feature coupling energies on the order of 0.25-1 meV corresponding to control frequencies in the 60-240 GHz range, suitable for operation at 3-12 degrees Kelvin, two orders of magnitude higher than today's qubits. The tuned mm-wave circuits allow for 10-20ps spin control pulses which help to filter out wideband thermal noise and largely enhance the ratio between the gating and the decoherence times. Thermal noise filtering and fast control of the spin may lead to even higher temperature operation for a given energy-level splitting.

Contact information

PROJECT COORDINATOR

Prof. Domenico Zito+48662711572