(Credit: Nord Quantique)
Canadian quantum computing firm Nord Quantique has announced plans to work with Quebec-based research center C2MI to produce new semiconductors tailor-made for quantum computers and will keep the production process within North America.
"Securing a resilient and reliable supply chain is important for us not only to unlock our roadmap, but also for national security reasons," Nord Quantique CEO Julien Lemyre said in an interview with PCMag. "A lot of countries right now are trying to have sovereignty over these technologies."
C2MI and Nord Quantique will develop "superconducting qubits," or superconducting circuits, for quantum computers which are, in layman's terms, what make quantum computers work. While qubits, or quantum bits, are the basic unit of information in a quantum machine and like transistors in how they function, they're also unreliable and arguably the industry's biggest hurdle. While some researchers in China recently claimed they've been able to, at least partially, crack encryption with quantum computers, it's been difficult to really harness the machines' full potential.
As Microsoft's Azure Quantum explains, today's quantum computers are more prone to error than regular computers because they exist in fragile states. This means researchers can expect, on average, that one out of every 100 to 1000 quantum gate operations will result in an error, or error rates of anywhere from 0.1 percent to one percent of the time.
"Quantum error correction is the future of quantum computing," Lemyre said. "The errors that [qubits] make usually make these machines not useful to industry, meaning that they don't have the performance needed to unlock useful applications. This is the state of the field, and solving that challenge is really what everyone is after."
Nord Quantique is also working with NY CREATES, or the New York Center for Research, Economic Advancement, Technology, Engineering, and Science. The New York-based nonprofit facilitates quantum computing research and development at its facility for 300mm semiconductors.
Lemyre said his company isn't working with a traditional chip maker like TSMC because quantum computers are currently too niche for such a large semiconductor manufacturer. "They want to mass-produce lots of chips, and quantum is not ready for this right now," he explained, calling the production process for quantum computing more broadly "challenging."
While quantum chips might visually resemble regular computer chips, Lemyre explains that chips for quantum computing are made of different materials. They're also designed to operate at cryogenic temperatures close to absolute zero (around minus 459 degrees Fahrenheit).
And North America's northeast coast more broadly is becoming a "chip manufacturing corridor" of sorts for the US and Canada after a meeting between President Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last year, where the leaders shared concerns over authoritarian leaders in countries like China and Russia and decided to support IBM's efforts to produce chips in North America instead of overseas.
Canada has vowed to pour roughly $181 million into its domestic semiconductor industry. The US has also been funding stateside semiconductor production with the hefty CHIPS Act, awarding billions in funding to firms like Intel, Samsung, Micron, and TSMC to build and renovate US factories.