Sydney scientists crack scalable CMOS quantum computing

A team of researchers at the University of Sydney has developed a cryogenic CMOS chip capable of controlling spin qubits at temperatures close to absolute zero. Published today in Nature, the work demonstrates that on-chip quantum processing is stable and efficient. This paves the way to scale quantum computers to millions of qubits.

The heart of the advance lies in a new control architecture that combines two separate chips – one for quantum qubits and another for classical control electronics – linked in a compact cryogenic package. This heterogeneous integration tackles a key barrier in quantum hardware: how to control fragile qubits without degrading their performance through heat or electrical interference? “We’ve now demonstrated a scalable control platform that can be integrated with qubits without destroying the fragile quantum states,” says David Reilly from the University of Sydney Nano Institute and School of Physics.