The Quantum Missions Pilot programme is investing in quantum computing and projects that remove technological barriers to large-scale commercialisation and adoption of quantum technologies. Oxford Ionics was selected for its ‘Quantum Testbed Advancements Through 2D Trapping Architecture’ project, or ‘Q-Surge’, with participation from Quantum Error Correction (QEC) company Riverlane and photonics assembly and packaging company Bay Photonics.

In order to unlock the commercial impact of quantum computing, today’s quantum computers must continue to rapidly scale to thousands of qubits without affecting speed or performance. The key to maintaining performance over rapid scaling lies with efficient design of ‘qubit routing’, or the way in which processors move information around the chip. Oxford Ionics has addressed this by engineering efficient 2D qubit connectivity, along with highly parallel ‘Electronic Qubit Control’ – a novel, patented technology which uses electronics, and not lasers, to manipulate its qubits. This allows the company to maintain high computational throughput as it scales to much larger qubit counts. The Q-Surge project will build on this fundamental work, adding innovations in packaging and QEC to further enhance scalability and performance for large-scale devices.

The Q-Surge consortium combines record-breaking quantum chips with leading innovators in QEC and fabrication and packaging techniques for manufacturing these chips. Oxford Ionics is the market leader in trap design, routing, and high fidelity gate performance – it currently holds the world records in all three of quantum computing’s super metrics: single-gate fidelity, two-qubit gate fidelity, and quantum state preparation and measurement. Riverlane develops cutting-edge solutions for QEC, and will apply this expertise to support the consortium in making architectural design choices for optimal QEC performance.  Bay Photonics pioneers advanced packaging solutions for quantum technologies and will provide novel techniques to realise the electrical, photonic, and electrostatically shielded packaging of these high-density quantum devices.

The output of this project will be used to upgrade Oxford Ionics’ trapped-ion quantum computer Quartet, which the NQCC purchased as part of its testbed programme, and which will be delivered later this month. In addition to upgrading the testbed technology, the Q-Surge project will remove the critical bottleneck of qubit routing, yielding a path towards quantum computers capable of executing 1 trillion operations and beyond.

Dr Chris Ballance, co-founder and CEO of Oxford Ionics, commented: “Oxford Ionics has been at the forefront of innovative, powerful chip design and manufacture for the past 5 years. We are thrilled to lead the Q-Surge consortium to apply this expertise by engineering our 2D ion traps at scale in order to remove one of the most critical barriers to market-catalysing quantum computers: qubit routing. We are especially excited to implement this technology as an upgrade to the quantum computer we are delivering to the NQCC later this month. Together with Riverlane and Bay Photonics, these pioneering innovations represent a significant step towards unleashing the full potential of quantum computing for widespread commercial use.”

Dr Steve Brierley OBE, Founder & CEO, Riverlane: “At Riverlane, we are laser focused on solving quantum error correction, the single biggest challenge standing in the way of useful quantum computing. Q-Surge is an important step toward building truly scalable quantum systems and we are proud to bring our expertise to this new consortium. By helping optimise Oxford Ionics' cutting-edge 2D ion trap architecture for quantum error correction, the consortium is making it possible to harness the full power of quantum computing sooner.”

Dr Andrew Robertson, CTO of Bay Photonics, commented: “Having been a key supporter of the UK National Quantum Technologies Programme since its launch in 2014, we are now reaching pivotal commercialisation milestones that demand robust, scalable packaging and assembly solutions for real-world deployment. This transition from research to application is critical, and Bay Photonics is at the forefront, delivering precise, high-performance photonic integration to enable the next generation of quantum technologies.”

For more startup news, check out the other articles on the website, and subscribe to the magazine for free. Listen to The Cereal Entrepreneur podcast for more interviews with entrepreneurs and big-hitters in the startup ecosystem.