Monolithic Quantum Processors in Production FDSOI and FinFET CMOS Technologies

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This equipment application aims to obtain a high sensitivity (fA) and high precision (10uV) semiconductor parameter analyzer suitable for testing novel and patented monolithically integrated quantum processors (QPs) consisting of SiGe hole-spin qubit arrays with up to 1024 qubits and associated millimetre-wave spin-manipulation and readout electronics. The research is funded by NSERC and supported by Ciena Canada and GlobalFoundries with in-kind fabrication runs in 3nm FinFET and 22nm FDSOI technologies valued at over $300,000 per year. It addresses the continued scaling of computational power by exploring novel atomic-scale quantum-computing (QC) hardware in CMOS foundry processes, which can be integrated on the same die with classical CMOS logic and millimetre-wave analog electronics. This equipment will be used daily by all graduate students in the applicant's research group. There is no equivalent instrument in the ECE Department at U of T. The IT industry is at a critical moment. The building block of classical computers, the CMOS transistor, has reached its fundamental limits. QPs are now the front runner to take the baton from classical digital processors and are drawing large research investments from tech companies (Google, Honeywell, Intel, IBM, Microsoft). In the next 5-10 years, QPs promise to transform computational medicine through exponential or polynomial speedups. For instance, with QPs we could elucidate the reaction pathways of nitrogenase in less than four days; a classical computer simulation would take billions of years. However, today's QPs have too few gate operations to solve practical problems, and yet are too large to be deployed in workplaces. Our elevated-temperature (>4 Kelvin) QPs will revolutionize computing. The 100x increase in operating temperature over current QPs will enable greatly increased processor complexity and compute power while reducing operating and power costs. Within 10 years, such a quantum computer will be about the size of a desktop computer, small enough to be deployed in workplaces, hospitals, doctors' offices, and homes. QC is also anticipated to fundamentally change the way information is transmitted and processed in the next decade, an area of strategic importance for telecom equipment companies like Ciena Canada. The telecommunications sector could make use of QPs for many applications in the future, including quantum cryptography, network optimization, quantum networking in terrestrial fibre networks, and AI applications. NRC projects that 229,000 Canadians will be employed in quantum R&D by 2040. Thus, our world-class technology and research and the requested equipment will enable global leadership in QC and its application in telecom and medicine by allowing us to be among the first to demonstrate low-cost, elevated temperature, monolithic QPs, creating new products and business opportunities, training HQP, and helping to solve so-far intractable problems to the benefit of Canadians.