SemiQon's Technology

At SemiQon, we are solving a problem everyone in the quantum business is desperate to solve: scaling up qubits in an affordable and sustainable way.

Our silicon-based quantum processors, or quantum integrated circuits, can be manufactured using affordable standard semiconductor manufacturing materials, tools, and methods. 

We started SemiQon to build a technology that can overcome the biggest challenge slowing down the progress of the quantum industry: The scale-up of quantum computers. As we develop and design our technology, we do so with the million-qubit era in mind. 

We build processors to power the next era of quantum computing, but while doing so, we are solving engineering challenges that will benefit the industry as a whole. We aren’t afraid to say that we don’t aim for one-of-a-kind. Our goal is to build productized and affordable high-quality silicon-based processors that can power the scale-up of quantum computing globally, not one single piece of exceptional hardware.

Silicon has many recognized properties, and to an extent, many of those also apply for quantum systems. From the get-go, we knew that using silicon for our quantum chips would allow us to sidestep many of the challenges faced by other modalities and offer technological advantages over alternative approaches.

We have a crisp focus on building technology meant for cryogenic use. By specializing in designing and fabricating quantum-optimized CMOS devices, we have been able to create valuable intellectual property and to develop technological solutions that can benefit also others working on different modalities. Our semiconductor-based quantum processing units with integrated quantum-dot qubits and cryogenic ultra-low dissipation CMOS hardware make it possible. 
 
Our quantum chips are 100 times more densely packed and operated at 100 times higher temperature than competing modalities, and they can be manufactured using affordable standard semiconductor manufacturing materials, tools and methods.​

The requirement of operating Si QD-based spin qubits at temperatures of about a few kelvins and below to preserve fragile quantum information encoded into spins prevents using the room temperature high-throughput probe station. Cryogenic probe stations are unlikely to ever reach the maturity level required to demonstrate qubit operation beyond I-V measurements. Thus, cryogenic on-chip multiplexing appears to be the only viable candidate for the development, optimization, and scaling up of silicon quantum processors based on large-scale statistical analysis from nominally identical silicon spin qubit devices.

The most promising way to realize cryogenic multiplexing, control, and/or readout of qubits is cryogenic CMOS electronics (cryo-CMOS). Using the same process to fabricate both qubits and CMOS circuits on the same chip, the ultra-low-charge noise background (limiting spin qubit performance due to spin-orbit coupling) of QD qubit devices at high temperatures above 1 K was demonstrated.

We aim to extend cryogenic multiplexers to accommodate hundreds of spin qubit devices on few mm2 silicon chip and apply recently developed machine-learning algorithms to allow for automated extraction of electrostatic and spin coherence properties of qubit arrays within the same cooldown.

Bringing together quantum and semiconductors, we can deliver more affordable products, endless opportunities for collaboration, and of course, the current holy grail of quantum, faster and more efficient scale-up.

We work out of Micronova, an advanced research facility for nano- and microtechnology located in Espoo, Finland. Our access to Micronova’s pilot-line fab makes us exceptionally nimble and allows us to benefit from fast design and fabrication cycles.

This access to world-class research infrastructure sets our speed and cost from nearly everyone else in the quantum component game. It allows us to run new fabrication cycles every few months and achieve a pace of technology and product development that would be otherwise practically impossible, or at the very least, incredibly costly. 

We work together with universities and private sector partners around the world to put our components to use, and to collect feedback that allows us to incorporate improvements in each iteration.

As a spin-out from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, we continue to work closely with the Finnish quantum and semiconductor ecosystems and benefit from national investments into new infrastructure, including Kvanttinova, an industry-driven piloting and development facility for microelectronics and quantum technology that will be built next door to our current facilities.