New-Tech Europe Magazine | June 2018

Latest News Intel Starts Testing Smallest ‘Spin Qubit’ Chip for Quantum Computing

Intel researchers are taking new steps toward quantum computers by testing a tiny new “spin qubit” chip. The new chip was created in Intel’s D1D Fab in Oregon using the same silicon manufacturing techniques that the company has perfected for creating billions of traditional computer chips. Smaller than a pencil’s eraser, it is the tiniest quantum computing chip Intel has made.

One feature of Intel’s tiny new spin qubit chip is especially promising. Its qubits are extraordinarily small – about 50 nanometers across and visible only under an electron microscope. About 1,500 qubits could fit across the diameter of a single human hair. This means the design for new

Intel spin qubit chip could be dramatically scaled up. Future quantum computers will contain thousands or even millions of qubits — and will be vastly more powerful than today’s fastest supercomputers. A 2018 photo shows Intel’s new quantum computing chip balanced on a pencil eraser. Researchers started testing this “spin qubit chip” at the extremely low temperatures necessary for quantum computing: about 460 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. Intel projects that qubit-based quantum computers, which operate based on the behaviors of single electrons, could someday be more powerful than today’s supercomputers. (Credit: Walden Kirsch/Intel Corporation)

The new spin qubit chip runs at the extremely low temperatures required for quantum computing: roughly 460 degrees below zero Fahrenheit – 250 times colder than space. The spin qubit chip does not contain transistors – the on/off switches that form the basis of today’s computing devices – but qubits (short for “quantum bits”) that can hold a single electron. The behavior of that single electron, which can be in multiple spin states simultaneously, offers vastly greater computing power than today’s transistors, and is the basis of quantum computing. The zigzag lines in the photo are printed wires connecting the chip’s qubits to the outside world.

Imec demonstrates compact low-power 140GHz CMOS radar with on-chip antennas Imec, the world-leading research and innovation hub in nanoelectronics and digital technologies, announced at the International Microwave Symposium (IMS, Philadelphia, USA), the world’s first CMOS 140GHz radar-on-chip system with integrated antennas in standard 28nm technology. The achievement is an important step in the development of radar-based sensors for a myriad of smart intuitive applications, such as building security, remote health monitoring of car drivers, breathing and heart rate of patients, and gesture recognition for man-machine interaction. Radars are extremely promising as sensors for contactless, non-intrusive interaction in internet-of-things applications such as people detection & classification, vital signs monitoring and gesture interfacing. A wide adoption will only be possible if radars achieve a higher resolution, become much smaller, more power- efficient to run, and cheaper to produce and to buy. This is what imec’s research on 140GHz radar technology targets. This low-power 140GHz radar solution comprises an imec proprietary two antenna SISO (Single Input Single Output) radar transceiver chip and a frequency modulated continuous wave phase-locked loop (FMCW PLL), off-the shelf ADCs and FPGA and a Matlab chain. The transceiver features on-chip antennas achieving a gain close to 3dBi. The excellent radar link budgets are supported thanks to the transmitter Effective Isotropic Radiated Power (EIRP) that exceeds 9dBm and a receiver noise

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