ITRI also contributes to the Taiwan quantum technology development. With the research founding supported by MOEA, Dr. Shyh‑Shyuan Sheu and Dr. Yuh‑Renn Wu Lead the Chip Technology and Design Division of Electronic and Optoelectronic System Research Laboratories in ITRI, and co‑laborite with Dr. Chii‑Dong Chen’s team of Academa Sinica to develop Supercondutor quantum computer.
ITRI and Academa Sinica collaborate to develop cryogenic hardware for qubit control
For the first project phase of 2022~2025, is an exploration of how a semiconductor chip engineering based research group can be involved into the quantum world which is a physicist domain. Actually, the development of quantum computing require the integration of many cross-field technology.
In this project, professional physicists of Academia Sinica help to provide the support for quantum physics of qubits, so that ITRI engineers can take the advantage of semiconductor technology and focus on the research project of the electrical circuit to drive and readout qubits. Then decide to develop the Cryogenic microwave drive and readout chips and modules for the first phase of quantum computer hardware development.
Cryo-CMOS chips as a cost-effective solution for room-temperature controllers and testers
The superconducting qubit must work at cryogenic equipment which the temperature close to absolute zero to produce superconductor state as a non‑linear inductance (as shown in figure 5). Current superconducting quantum computer hardware architecture, such as IBM, Google, IQM,
…, etc.) will have room temperature controllers and testers in racks.
There will obviously interconnection cables from room temperature to cryogenic equipment for X‑, Y‑, Z‑control and the “Write” and “Readout” measurement signals of each qubit. The wiring cables and room‑temperature controllers and testers will increase a lot as the increase of qubits number and also largely raise the hardware complexity, volume, cost, power‑consumption of a quantum computer.
The major players of superconducting quantum computer (IBM, Googles, …) also notice this situation that too much room‑temperature equipment and wires will unfavorable for future development, they have started to design Cryo-CMOS chips to mitigate or replace the room-temperature equipment and wires. That is, to integrate the quantum processor (qubits) and the peripheral controller and tester chips or modules together into a cryogenic facilities.
That will lead to the consequence to take the advantage of reducing the volume, cost as well as the power saving. The EOSL/ITRI team thus utilizes semiconductor chip design technology to develop cryogenic electronics for superconducting qubits control and readout.
ITRI’s cryogenic testing facilities and research resultant
The first step is to built cryogenic testing laboratory, including the 4 Kevin probe station for chip testing and the 4 Keving refrigerator for packaged modules. The power consumption of the chips and modules, say, ~ 1 Watt, should be under the maximum cooling power in 4K regions of these cryogenic facilities, which is around one to several Watts. And the superconducting qubits are placed in the 10mKevin (‑273℃ ) region where the cooling power is only several milli‑Watt.
Then, semiconductor foundries usually provide transistor equivalent circuit model library to designers for IC simulation analysis and design, and usually this models are room temperature basis and no cryogenic parameters. That is the reason to built the cryogenic transistor characterization.
This project successfully developed the cryogenic electronics for 1 qubit (provided by Academia Sinica) in 2023 as shown in figure 6. Follows a press release in March 2024 and publish a IEEE IMS (international microwave symposium) 2024 conference paper.
In 2024, ITRI issues the cryogenic microwave chips and modules for 2 qubits control and readout as shown in figure 7. A real demo test to control 2 qubits which are provided by Academia Sinica had been implement. The entanglement phenomenon of two qubits can be observed by tuning the qubit frequency. That also shows the cryogenic modules has the wide‑bandwidth character. These result also be published in IEEE IMS 2025. At the end of 2025, ITRI will announce a new cryogenic microwave module for control and readout 8 to 10 qubits.
Conclusion
ITRI will continue to provide cryogenic modules to control and readout more qubits. That requires to enhance the density of circuit components to shrink the size of quantum computer and take the advantage of power saving. ITRI is devote to develop personal quantum computers by utilizing the Taiwan semiconductor strength and help domestic industries to build self‑sufficient supply chain.
