This Icebox is a Lot Colder Than Yours

The fridge-sized cryogenic system addresses one of the biggest challenges in quantum computing.

Maybell’s Icebox dilution refrigerator is slightly larger than a kitchen fridge but can cool qubits to just above absolute zero, according to the company. (Source: Maybell Quantum.)

Maybell’s Icebox dilution refrigerator is slightly larger than a kitchen fridge but can cool qubits to just above absolute zero, according to the company. (Source: Maybell Quantum.)

On Monday, quantum computing hardware startup Maybell Quantum announced in a press release its Icebox dilution refrigerator, a cryogenic system the company claims will “power the next generation of quantum computers.”

One of the challenges of quantum computing is the extremely cold temperatures required. The physical quantum bits (qubits) that underly quantum computing must be kept near absolute zero to maintain coherence, the state in which they can be exploited for computation.

“Controlling quantum devices at room temperature is like playing a sonata in a hurricane,” said Corban Tillemann-Dick, CEO of Maybell Quantum, in the company’s press release.

The cryogenic systems that cool today’s quantum computers are large and complex, claims Maybell’s release, portraying them as “tangles of tubes and wires that cover hundreds of square feet and often require months to set up and PhDs to operate.”

Maybell’s Icebox dilution refrigerator is just the opposite, according to the company. They say the system is “slightly larger” than an average kitchen fridge and can easily be installed in a wide range of locations—a lab, server room, even a garage (for the up-and-coming Bill Gateses of the quantum world). It has a base temperature below 10mK.

One of the building blocks of the Icebox is Maybell’s patent-pending Flexlines, which are superconducting “quantum wires” that transmit less heat and vibration than traditional cabling. The Icebox has 4,500 Flexline traces.

Maybell Qunatum’s Flexlines are “ultra-high-density RF ribbon cables for quantum applications,” according to the company’s website. (Source: Maybell Quantum).

Maybell Qunatum’s Flexlines are “ultra-high-density RF ribbon cables for quantum applications,” according to the company’s website. (Source: Maybell Quantum).

“The Icebox supports three times more qubits in one-tenth the space,” said Kyle Thompson, Maybell’s CTO. “Many Icebox innovations are groundbreaking science, but some are just common sense. For example, the Icebox is the first system built with a door, so you can access your qubits without taking it apart—that shouldn’t have taken 40 years.”

Maybell’s Icebox may well become an integral part of further acceleration in quantum computing. Although more established companies like IBM, Microsoft, and D-Wave are flexing their quantum muscles, there’s enough problems to be solved—like cooling—that startups like Maybell have space to make their mark too.