Quantum computing startup Seeqc Inc. announced today that it has created a classical computer chip that can operate at temperatures close to absolute zero, enabling it to work with quantum processors that must be stored in similarly cold conditions.

The New York-based company was founded in 2018 after being spun out of the superconductor electronics developer Hypres Inc. It’s focused on building a hybrid architecture for quantum computing that combines quantum processors with classical computers.

Quantum computers, which are based on quantum physics, are still in development but could potentially become vastly more powerful than classical computers, performing calculations millions of times faster than even the most powerful supercomputers available today.

Seeqc says its hybrid approach to quantum computers has big potential for some very specific workloads, such as the design of new pharmaceutical drugs. It claims that its quantum/classical computing technique can dramatically reduce the decoherence — changes in frequency, motion, noise and temperature — that creates errors in extremely volatile quantum bits, known as qubits.

One of the challenges Seeqc faces is linking its quantum processors with the traditional chips that power classical computers. That’s because quantum processors can operate effectively only in cryogenic chambers, where they are stored at very cold temperatures of near zero Kelvin, or 273.15 degrees Celsius. Traditional computer chips cannot operate at such low temperatures.

Seeqc co-founder and Chief Executive John Levy told Reuters that information in quantum processors is measured in wave form and must be digitized into ones and zeros so that classical computers can access and control the qubits. Until now, quantum computers have been connected using wires to classical machines that sit outside of the cryogenic chamber, where they operate at room temperature.

However, the temperature change causes lots of issues, including slowing communication between the two machines. Seeqc is aiming to fix that by placing its new digital chip inside the cryogenic chamber, with the quantum chips. “It’s not enough to take these kinds of early prototype designs and try to scale them in a brute-force manner,” Levy said.

Seeqc’s new chip was manufactured at the company’s own fabrication plant. It’s built on a silicon wafer but does not use transistors like ordinary chips do. It sits directly underneath the quantum processor, where it can better manipulate the qubits and read the information they generate.

Levy said the company is also developing two other chips that will sit in a slightly warmer part of the cryogenic chamber that stores its quantum computer, where they will be able to process information more efficiently. He explained that these developments will enable each cryogenic chamber to support larger numbers of qubits, resulting in more powerful quantum machines. Seeqc’s existing quantum computer already has hundreds of qubits, but it will need thousands or possibly even millions of them to become powerful enough to achieve its true potential.

Photo: Seeqc