{"405111":{"#nid":"405111","#data":{"type":"news","title":"New chip architecture may provide foundation for quantum computer","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EQuantum computers are in theory capable of simulating the interactions of molecules at a level of detail far beyond the capabilities of even the largest supercomputers today. Such simulations could revolutionize chemistry, biology and materials science, but the development of quantum computers has been limited by the ability to increase the number of quantum bits, or qubits, that encode, store and access large amounts of data.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn a paper published in the \u003Cem\u003EJournal of Applied Physics\u003C\/em\u003E, a team of researchers at the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.gtri.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EGeorgia Tech Research Institute\u003C\/a\u003E (GTRI) and Honeywell International have demonstrated a new device that allows more electrodes to be placed on a chip \u2013 an important step that could help increase qubit densities and bring us one step closer to a quantum computer that can simulate molecules or perform other algorithms of interest.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022To write down the quantum state of a system of just 300 qubits, you would need 2^300 numbers, roughly the number of protons in the known universe, so no amount of Moore\u0027s Law scaling will ever make it possible for a classical computer to process that many numbers,\u0022 said Nicholas Guise, a GTRI research scientist who led the research. \u0022This is why it\u0027s impossible to fully simulate even a modest sized quantum system, let alone something like chemistry of complex molecules, unless we can build a quantum computer to do it.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhile existing computers use classical bits of information, quantum computers use \u0022quantum bits\u0022 or qubits to store information. Classical bits use either a 0 or 1, but a qubit, exploiting a weird quantum property called superposition, can actually be in both 0 and 1 simultaneously, allowing much more information to be encoded. Since qubits can be correlated with each other in a way that classical bits cannot, they allow a new sort of massively parallel computation, but only if many qubits at a time can be produced and controlled. The challenge that the field has faced is scaling this technology up, much like moving from the first transistors to the first computers.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOne leading qubit candidate is individual ions trapped inside a vacuum chamber and manipulated with lasers. The scalability of current trap architectures is limited since the connections for the electrodes needed to generate the trapping fields come at the edge of the chip, and their number are therefore limited by the chip perimeter.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe GTRI\/Honeywell approach uses new microfabrication techniques that allow more electrodes to fit onto the chip while preserving the laser access needed.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe team\u0027s design borrows ideas from a type of packaging called a ball grid array (BGA) that is used to mount integrated circuits. The ball grid array\u0027s key feature is that it can bring electrical signals directly from the backside of the mount to the surface, thus increasing the potential density of electrical connections.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers also freed up more chip space by replacing area-intensive surface or edge capacitors with trench capacitors and strategically moving wire connections.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe space-saving moves allowed tight focusing of an addressing laser beam for fast operations on single qubits. Despite early difficulties bonding the chips, a solution was developed in collaboration with Honeywell, and the device was trapping ions from the very first day.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe team was excited with the results. \u0022Ions are very sensitive to stray electric fields and other noise sources, and a few microns of the wrong material in the wrong place can ruin a trap. But when we ran the BGA trap through a series of benchmarking tests we were pleasantly surprised that it performed at least as well as all our previous traps,\u0022 Guise said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWorking with trapped ion qubits currently requires a room full of bulky equipment and several graduate students to make it all run properly, so the researchers say much work remains to be done to shrink the technology. The BGA project demonstrated that it\u0027s possible to fit more and more electrodes on a surface trap chip while wiring them from the back of the chip in a compact and extensible way. However, there are a host of engineering challenges that still need to be addressed to turn this into a miniaturized, robust and nicely packaged system that would enable quantum computing, the researchers say.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn the meantime, these advances have applications beyond quantum computing. \u0022We all hope that someday quantum computers will fulfill their vast promise, and this research gets us one step closer to that,\u0022 Guise said. \u0022But another reason that we work on such difficult problems is that it forces us to come up with solutions that may be useful elsewhere. For example, microfabrication techniques like those demonstrated here for ion traps are also very relevant for making miniature atomic devices like sensors, magnetometers and chip-scale atomic clocks.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis work was funded by the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThe article, \u0022Ball-grid array architecture for microfabricated ion traps,\u0022 is authored by Nicholas D. Guise, Spencer D. Fallek, Kelly E. Stevens, K. R. Brown, Curtis Volin, Alexa W. Harter, Jason M. Amini, Robert E. Higashi, Son Thai Lu, Helen M. Chanhvongsak, Thi A. Nguyen, Matthew S. Marcus, Thomas R. Ohnstein and Daniel W. Youngner. It appears in the Journal of Applied Physics and can be accessed at:\u003C\/em\u003E \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/scitation.aip.org\/content\/aip\/journal\/jap\/117\/17\/10.1063\/1.4917385\u0022\u003Ehttp:\/\/scitation.aip.org\/content\/aip\/journal\/jap\/117\/17\/10.1063\/1.4917385\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EResearch News\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGeorgia Institute of Technology\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E177 North Avenue\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAtlanta, Georgia 30332-0181 USA\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMedia Relations Contacts\u003C\/strong\u003E: John Toon (404-894-6986) (\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jtoon@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ejtoon@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E) or Lance Wallace (404-407-7280) (\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:lance.wallace@gtri.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Elance.wallace@gtri.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EArticle written by the American Institute of Physics.\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EResearchers at the Georgia Tech Research Institute and Honeywell have developed a microfabricated ion trap architecture that holds promise for increasing the density of qubits in future quantum computers.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Researchers have developed a microfabricated ion trap architecture that could enable quantum computers."}],"uid":"27303","created_gmt":"2015-05-17 20:59:37","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:18:17","author":"John Toon","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2015-05-18T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2015-05-18T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"405061":{"id":"405061","type":"image","title":"Quantum computer architecture","body":null,"created":"1449254135","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 18:35:35","changed":"1475895127","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:52:07","alt":"Quantum computer architecture","file":{"fid":"76064","name":"chip-architecture2.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/chip-architecture2.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/chip-architecture2.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":2049224,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/chip-architecture2.jpg?itok=jdLnrb6i"}},"405081":{"id":"405081","type":"image","title":"Quantum computer architecture2","body":null,"created":"1449254135","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 18:35:35","changed":"1475895127","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:52:07","alt":"Quantum computer architecture2","file":{"fid":"76066","name":"chip-architecture3.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/chip-architecture3.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/chip-architecture3.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1693357,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/chip-architecture3.jpg?itok=w1UD3ltF"}},"405091":{"id":"405091","type":"image","title":"Ion trap assembly","body":null,"created":"1449254135","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 18:35:35","changed":"1475895127","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:52:07","alt":"Ion trap assembly","file":{"fid":"76067","name":"bgatrapphoto.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/bgatrapphoto.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/bgatrapphoto.png","mime":"image\/png","size":1942062,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/bgatrapphoto.png?itok=OcBbCfwc"}},"405101":{"id":"405101","type":"image","title":"Ion trap connections","body":null,"created":"1449254135","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 18:35:35","changed":"1475895127","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:52:07","alt":"Ion trap connections","file":{"fid":"76068","name":"bumpbonding.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/bumpbonding.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/bumpbonding.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":245847,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/bumpbonding.jpg?itok=sbyWrp5l"}}},"media_ids":["405061","405081","405091","405101"],"groups":[{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"147","name":"Military Technology"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"150","name":"Physics and Physical Sciences"}],"keywords":[{"id":"416","name":"GTRI"},{"id":"126271","name":"ion trap. qubit"},{"id":"1744","name":"quantum"},{"id":"4359","name":"quantum computing"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39451","name":"Electronics and Nanotechnology"},{"id":"39481","name":"National Security"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71881","name":"Science and Technology"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJohn Toon\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EResearch News\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jtoon@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ejtoon@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E(404) 894-6986\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jtoon@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}