Reliable, high throughput production and characterisation of coherent superconducting devices

先进的生产能力使基于半导体的传统电子产品变得更加强大，并支持我们今天使用的几乎所有技术，从笔记本电脑到洗衣机和尖端医疗设备。但随着元件的小型化接近原子尺度，半导体现在面临着严峻的限制。这些经典电路的局限性可以用量子电路克服，量子电路利用大自然的所有技巧来开辟传感、安全和信息处理技术领域，这些领域以前一直是难以捉摸的。建造这些量子电路最成功的方法之一是使用超导体，超导体可以用许多传统电子产品已经使用的工具来建造，并且允许在量子技术的几乎任何领域进行很大程度的定制。建造这些超导电路目前是一项具有挑战性的壮举，需要接近原子水平的电路写入精度，并且完全隔离任何辐射，污染和缺陷，否则会干扰这些电路的微妙量子态。此外，获得低温设备和最先进的电子设备进行核查也需要大量的前期投资。因此，制造这些电路的能力仅限于学术和国家实验室，以及极少数秘密的商业企业。虽然在这个领域有许多潜在的商业机会可供开发，但超导电路的生产挑战对大多数英国公司来说是一个很大的进入障碍。他们根本没有可用的资源来赶上并与商业上可用的解决方案竞争。幸运的是，英国在高质量超导电路的制造和验证方面拥有世界领先的专家，在从生产到集成和测量的整个供应链上拥有世界一流的商业合作伙伴。我们正在共同努力，为即将迅速发展的新兴量子经济带来商业规模和质量的超导电路生产能力。为了降低进入壁垒并授权英国企业，我们将为企业开发研发中心，以及用于购买超导设备和获得测试设备的代工厂。这种独特的额外能力将使英国成为基于超导电路的技术中心，带来就业和投资，并提供具有许多战略效益的国内技术供应。

Advanced production capabilities have allowed conventional electronics based on semiconductors to become more powerful and support almost all technologies we use today, from laptops to washing machines and cutting edge medical equipment. But semiconductors are now facing hard limits as the miniaturisation of components reaches closer to the atomic scale.The limitations of these classical circuits can be overcome with quantum circuits, which utilise all the tricks of nature to open up areas in sensing, security and information processing technology that previously remained elusive. One of the most successful ways of building these quantum circuits is with superconductors, which can be built with many of the tools already used for conventional electronics and allow for a large degree of customisation to be applied to almost any area within quantum technology.Building these superconducting circuits is currently a challenging feat, requiring close to atomic level accuracy of circuit writing and total isolation from any radiation, contamination and defects that would otherwise disturb the delicate quantum state of these circuits. Furthemore, accessing cryogenic equipment and state-of-the-art electronics for verification also presents a significant up-front investment. The capacity to produce these circuits is therefore confined to academic and national labs, and a very small number of secretive commercial ventures.Whilst there are many potential business opportunities ready to be exploited in this space, the superconducting circuits' production challenges present a large barrier to entry to most companies in the UK. They simply do not have the resources available to catch-up and compete with commercially available solutions.Fortunately, the UK is home to world-leading experts in the manufacture and validation of high quality superconducting circuits, and to world-class commercial partners across the whole supply chain from production to integration and measurement. Together we are bringing the capability to produce superconducting circuits at commercial scale and quality, for a nascent quantum economy that is about to rapidly expand.To provide lower barriers to entry and empower UK-based ventures, we will develop R&D centres for businesses, as well as foundries for the purchase of superconducting devices and access to testing equipment. This unique extra capability will empower the UK as a hub for technology based on superconducting circuits, bringing in jobs and investment, and delivering a domestic supply of a technology with many strategic benefits.