The companies are to develop the chips in SkyWater’s semiconductor manufacturing facility in Bloomington, Minnesota. This engagement supports PsiQuantum’s goal to deliver a commercially viable, error-corrected general purpose quantum computer that scales beyond 1,000,000 qubits using silicon photonics.
Quantum computing promises to be a profound technology to drive advances in various industries and the collaboration between PsiQuantum and SkyWater brings together expertise in photonic quantum computing and silicon photonics to create a quantum computer capable of performing otherwise impossible calculations.
SkyWater’s Technology as a Service (TaaS) model enables advanced technologies to be developed and produced efficiently in a production fab and actively supports quantum computing initiatives. The company’s silicon photonics integration and manufacturing capabilities will enable PsiQuantum to develop quantum chips that can be measured and tested for long-term reliability, critical to executing quantum algorithms which require millions or billions of gate operations.
While there are many different approaches to building small numbers of qubits, the photonic approach has significant technical advantages at the scale required for error correction.
SkyWater’s TaaS model is a catalyst for the close technical collaboration necessary to co-create a new process integration that is required for quantum computing.
“We are delighted with the excellent 200 mm photonics capabilities of SkyWater and how they satisfy our critical development needs. We have found the partnership with SkyWater beneficial due to the valuable speed and flexibilities of the team and company. Having domestic fabs with proven manufacturing capability and the development flexibility to support our required process flows is key to the success of our product plans,” commented Fariba Danesh, chief operating officer at PsiQuantum. “PsiQuantum is not only innovating in quantum architecture, but our teams are also driving advanced front end of line process innovation, and the ability to use unique process tooling in a proven factory will accelerate our programme.”
According to Steve Kosier, SkyWater’s chief technology officer, “PsiQuantum’s and SkyWater’s engineering teams are working together to co-create the reality of a quantum-enabled world. We look forward to continuing to support them through development and into their production ramp.”
