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规模，半导体现在面临着硬限制。这些经典电路的局限性可以通过量子电路来克服，量子电路利用自然的所有技巧来开拓以前仍然难以捉摸的传感、安全和信息处理技术领域。建造这些量子电路最成功的方法之一是使用超导体，它可以用许多已经用于传统电子学的工具来建造，并允许在几乎任何量子技术领域进行高度定制。建造这些超导电路目前是一项具有挑战性的壮举，需要接近原子级别的电路编写精度，并完全隔离任何辐射、污染和缺陷，否则这些辐射、污染和缺陷将扰乱这些电路的微妙量子状态。此外，获取低温设备和最先进的电子设备进行核查也是一项重大的前期投资。因此，生产这些电路的能力仅限于学术和国家实验室，以及非常少量的秘密商业冒险。尽管这一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英国大多数公司来说是一个巨大的进入障碍。他们根本没有可用的资源来追赶并与商业上可用的解决方案竞争。幸运的是，英国拥有高质量超导电路制造和验证方面的世界领先专家，以及从生产到集成和测量的整个供应链的世界级商业合作伙伴。我们正在共同努力，为即将迅速扩张的新兴量子经济带来生产商业规模和质量的超导电路的能力。为了降低进入门槛并增强英国企业的能力，我们将为企业发展研发中心，以及用于购买超导设备和获得测试设备的铸造厂。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好处的国内技术供应。

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.