Quantum computing is showing signs of reaching a stage of quantum usability where it can surpass the performance of existing supercomputers. Amidst this, Intel, a leader in quantum chip development and manufacturing, has announced the release of a new 12-qubit quantum research chip, making it available to the quantum research community.

Intel announced on the 19th that it is unveiling a new quantum research chip, Tunnel Falls, a 12-qubit silicon chip, and making it available to the quantum research community.

Intel announced a collaboration with the Laboratory for Physical Sciences (LPS) at the University of Maryland, College Park's Qubit Collaborative (LQC), a national quantum information science (QIS) research center, to advance quantum computing research.

Currently, academic institutions lack the mass-production equipment of Intel. With Tunnel Falls, researchers can save time by manufacturing their own devices and begin experiments and research immediately. This will allow us to delve deeper into the fundamental principles of qubits and quantum dots, and enable broader experiments, including the development of new technologies using devices with multiple qubits.

To this end, Intel is collaborating with LQC through the U.S. Army Research Laboratory as part of the Qubits for Computing Foundries (QCF) program, providing Intel's new quantum chips to research labs. This collaboration with LQC will allow researchers to gain hands-on experience working with an expanded array of spin qubits, which is expected to drive the popularization of silicon spin qubits. This project aims to strengthen human resource development, unlock new quantum research possibilities, and expand the overall quantum ecosystem.
The first quantum research institutes to participate in the program include LPS, Sandia National Laboratories, the University of Rochester, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. LQC plans to collaborate with Intel to make Tunnel Falls accessible to more universities and research institutes. Information collected from the experiment will be shared with the community to advance quantum research and help Intel improve qubit performance and scalability.

“The LPS Qubit Lab is working with the Army Research Laboratory to solve the challenging challenges facing qubit development and to train the next generation of scientists who will create the qubits of the future,” said Charles Tahan, director of LPS Quantum Information Sciences.

“Tunnel Falls will allow Sandia quantum researchers to directly compare different qubit encodings and develop new qubit modes of operation that were not possible before,” said Dwight Luhman, Ph.D., director of technology at Sandia National Laboratories. “This level of sophistication will enable new quantum computations and algorithms in multi-qubit regimes and accelerate the rate of learning in silicon-based quantum systems.”

James S. Clark “Concepts like quantum superposition and quantum entanglement offer new possibilities for solving complex problems and exploring the quantum regime in devices,” said Clarke, director of quantum hardware at Intel. “While quantum computing is still a long way from commercial applications, Intel is committed to advancing the field and building a research ecosystem to accelerate progress.”
“Tunnel Falls is Intel’s most advanced silicon spin qubit chip to date, leveraging decades of transistor design and manufacturing expertise,” said Jim Clarke, director of quantum hardware at Intel. “Within Intel’s long-term strategy, the launch of Tunnel Falls is the next step toward building a full-stack commercial quantum computing system. While fundamental questions and challenges remain on the road to fault-tolerant quantum computers, it allows the academic community to explore the technology and further accelerate research and development.”

Tunnel Falls was manufactured on 300-millimeter wafers at Intel's D1 manufacturing facility, and the 12-qubit device reportedly leverages Intel's cutting-edge transistor industry manufacturing capabilities, including extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, gate and contact processing technologies. In silicon spin qubits, information (0/1) is encoded in the spin (up/down) of a single electron, and because each qubit device is essentially a single-electron transistor, Intel can manufacture them using a flow similar to that used in standard complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) logic process lines.
According to Nature Electronics, “Silicon may be the platform with the greatest potential for implementing scalable quantum computing.” Intel believes that silicon spin qubits are superior to other qubit technologies due to their synergy with cutting-edge transistors, and that silicon spin qubits, which are the size of a transistor and are up to a million times smaller than other qubit types at about 50 nanometers square, can efficiently scale.

Intel's advanced CMOS manufacturing lines allow it to leverage innovative process control techniques to achieve high yields and performance. For example, its Tunnel Falls 12-qubit devices offer 95% yield across the wafer and voltage uniformity similar to CMOS logic processes, with each wafer containing over 24,000 quantum dot devices. Depending on the university or research system's operating system, these 12-dot chips can form 4 to 12 qubits, which can be separated and used for simultaneous computations.

Intel is working to improve the performance of Tunnel Falls and integrate it into the overall quantum stack through the Intel Quantum Software Development Kit (SDK). Intel is accelerating the quantum ecosystem by announcing that it is developing a next-generation quantum chip based on Tunnel Falls and plans to unveil it in 2024.