SurgeonQ: Lattice-surgery platform for real-time, scalable error correction on superconducting qubits
Lead Participant:
RIVERLANE LTD
Abstract
Quantum computers have the potential to revolutionise critical industries, including healthcare, manufacturing, and finance. These computers utilise 'qubits' as their fundamental building blocks. Qubits enable much faster and more complex processing of information compared to the computers we use today. However, they are very susceptible to environmental 'noise', which introduces errors into a computation and ultimately makes quantum computers less reliable.
To address this challenge, researchers are developing quantum 'error correction' techniques that use multiple qubits to "encode" information in a manner that allows for accurate retrieval or "decoding", even when some qubits are affected by noise. Several decoding routines must be performed continuously in the background while the quantum computer runs the desired program. The ultimate objective is to design optimal qubit architectures and error correction methods. This will allow us to build quantum computers that are big and complex enough to help, for example, simulate new drugs or materials for clean energy storage.
Three leading quantum computing companies - Riverlane from the UK, IQM from Germany and Zurich Instruments from Switzerland -- will join forces in the SurgeonQ project. We are going to build the first quantum computing platform that can perform these 'decoding routines' at very high speed. Using the qubits built by IQM and Zurich Instruments' advanced electronics, we'll be able to control and read out tens of qubits and decide the next computational steps within around 500 nanoseconds. At the same time, we will use Riverlane's decoding technology to identify and correct errors in the same timeframe so that error correction does not slow down the quantum program and bring it to a halt. By bringing all our technology together, we'll be able to run decoding routines in less than a microsecond.
This technology will allow us to build bigger and faster quantum computers, which will be much more powerful than today's computers. In the future, these can help solve complex societal challenges related to health and climate change.
To address this challenge, researchers are developing quantum 'error correction' techniques that use multiple qubits to "encode" information in a manner that allows for accurate retrieval or "decoding", even when some qubits are affected by noise. Several decoding routines must be performed continuously in the background while the quantum computer runs the desired program. The ultimate objective is to design optimal qubit architectures and error correction methods. This will allow us to build quantum computers that are big and complex enough to help, for example, simulate new drugs or materials for clean energy storage.
Three leading quantum computing companies - Riverlane from the UK, IQM from Germany and Zurich Instruments from Switzerland -- will join forces in the SurgeonQ project. We are going to build the first quantum computing platform that can perform these 'decoding routines' at very high speed. Using the qubits built by IQM and Zurich Instruments' advanced electronics, we'll be able to control and read out tens of qubits and decide the next computational steps within around 500 nanoseconds. At the same time, we will use Riverlane's decoding technology to identify and correct errors in the same timeframe so that error correction does not slow down the quantum program and bring it to a halt. By bringing all our technology together, we'll be able to run decoding routines in less than a microsecond.
This technology will allow us to build bigger and faster quantum computers, which will be much more powerful than today's computers. In the future, these can help solve complex societal challenges related to health and climate change.
Lead Participant | Project Cost | Grant Offer |
|---|---|---|
| RIVERLANE LTD | £999,968 | £ 599,981 |
People |
ORCID iD |
| John Burrows (Project Manager) |