1. SemiQon has built a strategic partnership with University of Jyväskylä’s (JYU) Hybrid Quantum Technologies in Silicon -research group. The group uses SemiQon’s components in its research work as it studies the interaction between spins, photons, and phonons in silicon.
2. JYU is expanding its quantum research infrastructure in collaboration with SemiQon and boosting Finland’s national capabilities in silicon-based quantum research.
3. Strategic university partners are central in the validation of SemiQon’s devices and providing feedback that helps improve each new generation of components.
4. The partnership between University of Jyväskylä and SemiQon also includes a doctoral student funded by PhD pilot programme QDOC, and working side-by-side in European-level research projects on silicon QC technology.
   

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University of Jyväskylä, which also hosts an interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (NSC), wants to position Finland as a global leader in spin qubits with Jyväskylä serving as a central hub for research.  JYU’s ongoing partnership with SemiQon and access to SemiQon’s devices is crucial in allowing the university’s quantum scientists to carry out the ambitious research.  

The challenge

University of Jyväskylä’s Hybrid Quantum Technologies in Silicon -research group led by professor Juha Muhonen specializes in both studying fundamental quantum phenomena and in enabling quantum devices.  

“For us, SemiQon happened at the right time as there are no other suppliers for exactly this type of device.”

The team’s objective is to overcome the challenge of coupling qubits in a scalable manner and over long distances – thus removing a key obstacle to silicon-based quantum computing becoming mainstream.  

As Professor Muhonen puts it, the “holy grail” for quantum in the long run is a large-scale, useful quantum computer. And while silicon as a material has many great qualities, solving the problem of coupling remains pivotal. This is why the JYU team focuses its research is creating interfaces between qubits, photons and phonons in silicon.

“In simple terms, we want to build systems where we have implanted atoms into silicon and use them as qubits. However, to read out these qubits, we need a detector nearby, and that was something we did not have,” Professor Muhonen explains.

With top expertise in the field scattered across the world and very few components commercially available, finding a partner in Finland was merely lucky.  

“For us, SemiQon happened at the right time as there are no other suppliers for exactly this type of device,” Professor Muhonen says.

The solution

Allowing researchers to focus on research, is an important part of SemiQon’s vision for reaching the million-qubit era.

“At SemiQon, we firmly believe in silicon as the most promising avenue to scaling quantum computing,” explains CSO Janne Lehtinen. “In essence, we want to speed up the progress of the field by making our pioneering technology available to top researchers. Access to our chips will allow them to spend their time on advancing the science instead of wasting time and resources on the trial and error of trying to build these next-generation components.”

Professor Muhonen agrees: “SemiQon’s devices are crucial for our research. Without their ability to supply us with these key components, our only option would have been to embark on a multi-year, multi-PhD student project to produce these detectors in house. It would have slowed down our research work – and likely involved a lot of desperation”, Professor Muhonen explains.  

Even in the best-case scenario, Professor Muhonen estimates that the researchers at JYU could have built a handful of the needed devices, while SemiQon is able to produce quantities in tens of thousands.

“SemiQon’s devices are crucial for our research. Without their ability to supply us with these key components, our only option would have been to embark on a multi-year, multi-PhD student project to produce these detectors in house. It would have slowed down our research work – and likely involved a lot of desperation”

Beyond just the devices, the cooperation between JYU’s quantum researchers and SemiQon is a dynamic set-up that brings basic research and a private company close together sharing infrastructure and participating in workforce development.

“Sometimes we are prone to naïvely thinking that research is first done at universities and then it’s taken to companies to commercialize. But a lot can happen in that interface – as is happening here: both benefit when commercialization is taking place even when basic research still continues,” Muhonen points out.

The value

The collaboration between JYU and SemiQon is ongoing. Although the two partners work on different aspects of silicon quantum computing, both share the objective of wanting to see silicon-based quantum technologies progress and succeed.

“One of the benefits of silicon is that because we already use it in everything in our digital world, using it also for quantum makes the integration of classical electronics and photonics into quantum systems much more straightforward. This is one of the things SemiQon is really advancing, the integration of classical electronics into quantum systems.”

“The collaboration with SemiQon has been very smooth and working together is a natural fit. We aren’t only improving our own infrastructure and capabilities as a university but also the national capabilities in the field.”

The work toward the common goal continues also through publicly funded projects, like EQUSPACE, a 3.2-million-euro research consortium aimed at developing a complete silicon-based quantum information system funded by the European Innovation Council. A reliable source of starting chips supplied by SemiQon was important for making the project successful in securing this highly competitive funding.  

“The collaboration with SemiQon has been very smooth and working together is a natural fit. We aren’t only improving our own infrastructure and capabilities as a university but also the national capabilities in the field.”

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_{Main image credit: University of Jyväskylä}