Silicon Quantum Computing (SQC) recently released its newest innovation, the Quantum Twins product. This world-leading silicon quantum simulator is now commercially available to customers through direct contracts. This monumental discovery marks a significant leap forward for quantum technology. It more broadly positions SQC to be a leader in addressing the world’s complex material challenges. The company has the ambitious goal of using this technology to accelerate many applications, from drug discovery to product formulation and design.
Founded in late 2017 by inventor and physicist Michelle Simmons, SQC has spent the past several years refining its Precision Atom Qubit Manufacturing process. To create this groundbreaking simulator, the team built on more than 25 years of Simmons’ research that has been published in academia. Using Quantum Twins, you’ll be able to engineer a quantum twin for nearly any two-dimensional challenge. This innovation creates unprecedented power for material simulation.
Groundbreaking Technology and Manufacturing Process
Their Quantum Twins product takes a different route, using a patented technique which the team has developed to insert single phosphorus atoms inside of silicon. But instead, they choose to use clusters of ten to fifty phosphorus atoms to form registers for application-specific chips. This experimental implementation enables highly complex simulations that would be impossible for classical computers to perform.
SQC’s technology is built on a demanding and finely tuned 38-stage process to pattern phosphorus atoms into the silicon. The team has successfully demonstrated that their device, composed of fifteen thousand quantum dots, can simulate a material’s transition from an insulator to a metal. This ability is especially timely because the metal-insulator transition cannot be effectively simulated on classical computers.
“Instead of using qubits, as you would typically in a quantum computer, we just directly encode the problem into the geometry and structure of the array itself.” – Sam Gorman
“Now that we’ve demonstrated that the device is behaving as we predict, we’re looking at high-impact issues or outstanding problems.” – Sam Gorman
Broader Applications and Future Aspirations
Simmons shared his positive outlook, believing that there is still great utility to be found in Quantum Twins, especially in industrial applications like drug discovery. The team had used an earlier version of this technology to simulate the single molecule polyacetylene. Today, they are hungry to set their sights on more challenging molecules.
“If you look at different drugs, they’re actually very similar to polyacetylene. They’re carbon chains, and they have functional groups. So, understanding how to map it [onto our simulator] is a unique challenge. But that’s definitely an area we’re going to focus on. We’re excited at the potential possibilities.” – Michelle Simmons
Achievements and Future Directions
Since 2013, SQC has made significant progress in putting its technology to work in real-world applications. In 2014, the team developed markers within chips to accurately locate where atoms are placed, enabling precise contacts at a scale comparable to the atoms themselves.
“It’s done in ultra-high vacuum. So it’s a very pure, very clean system.” – Michelle Simmons
Due to their extremely efficient manufacturing process, SQC can generate 250,000 registers on a chip in a mere eight hours. Heck, they turnaround chip designs in a mere one week! This speed and precision make their innovations even more practical.
“We can do things now that we think nobody else in the world can do.” – Sam Gorman
As Silicon Quantum Computing moves forward, it remains dedicated to pursuing traditional quantum computing methods alongside its groundbreaking work with Quantum Twins. SQC undoubtedly shines as the leader in the field due to its unique hybrid approach merging advanced simulation with traditional quantum computing. This role represents significant opportunity to make progress going forward.