Companies working to develop high-volume fabrication processes for key component of photonic quantum computers.
Xanadu is collaborating with Applied Materials, Inc., a leader in materials engineering, to develop the first 300 mm high-volume-compatible process for building superconducting transition edge sensors (TESs). These TESs are a core component of photon-number-resolving detectors (PNRs), which are key elements that enable the qubit state preparation process in Xanadu’s photonic quantum computers.
Xanadu’s recent groundbreaking demonstration of its Aurora quantum computer, published in Nature earlier this year, paved the way towards a utility-scale photonic quantum computer by demonstrating the first ever modular, scalable, and networkable quantum computer. As Xanadu shifts its focus towards reducing optical loss throughout different components to achieve fault tolerance, it is also looking ahead to when its quantum computer will be ready to be scaled up to a full-fledged quantum data centre. Such scaling will require mass semiconductor manufacturing capabilities of various components, including TESs for PNRs, to reduce production costs and meet the stringent demands on detector performance, quality, and production volume required.
This collaboration builds on previous work done jointly between Xanadu and Applied Materials which focused on materials optimization of TES fabrication processes. Over the next year, the two teams aim to demonstrate the first 300 mm platform for building TESs for PNRs. Once a basic demonstration of the platform’s capabilities is completed towards the end of 2025, the Xanadu and Applied Materials teams intend to continue optimizing its performance to meet the demands of high-throughput and high-reliability fabrication before ramping up for mass manufacturing.
For more information, visit xanadu.ai.
