Intel and QuTech – a collaboration between Delft University of Technology and the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research – published key findings in quantum research to address the “interconnect bottleneck” that exists between quantum chips that sit in cryogenic dilution refrigerators and the complex room-temperature electronics that control the qubits. It addresses one of the biggest challenges to quantum scalability with Intel’s cryogenic controller chip Horse Ridge.
“Our cryogenic controller, Horse Ridge, can achieve the same high-fidelity results as room-temperature electronics while controlling multiple silicon qubits. We also successfully demonstrated frequency multiplexing on two qubits using a single cable, which clears the way for simplifying the ‘wiring challenge’ in quantum computing. Together, these innovations pave the way for fully integrating quantum control chips with the quantum processor in the future, lifting a major roadblock in quantum scaling, said Stefano Pellerano, principal engineer at Intel Labs.
The research team demonstrated the programmability of the controller by running a two-qubit algorithm called the Deutsch–Jozsa algorithm, which is more efficient on a quantum computer than on a traditional computer. The results, verified by randomized benchmarking, validate the original promise of Horse Ridge as a highly integrated and scalable solution for simplifying quantum control electronics, and prove that the technology can be directly applied to multi-qubit algorithms and noisy intermediate-scale quantum devices.
With continuing research in this field, it may be possible to fully integrate the controller chip and the qubits on the same die – they are all fabricated in silicon – or package, paving the path for quantum scalability. Quantum computing has implications for the exponential speed up of calculation sequences such as those used for financial optimization.