Quantum Motion and University of Pennsylvania agree partnership

Quantum Motion, a quantum computing scaleup from the UK, founded by Professor John Morton from University College London and Professor Simon Benjamin from the University of Oxford, has initiated a flagship academic collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania.

The partnership will afford researchers at the university access to Quantum Motion's leading-edge silicon qubit chips and significant funding that will enhance the university's quantum hardware testing facilities. This marks Quantum Motion’s first academic liaison in the US and is poised to not only further the company's chip development but also to attract foremost talent from the US to contribute to its expansion.

The quantum hardware laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania, steered by Assistant Professor Anthony Sigillito, will delve into exploring the ultimate potential of qubit control utilising Quantum Motion's chips. Sigillito's group is distinguished for its expertise in pioneering methods for encoding and managing electron spin qubits, which is a vital aspect for Quantum Motion as it seeks to realise its ambition of fabricating scalable quantum computers based on silicon.

The partnership will also establish a program of exchange visits between Quantum Motion and the University of Pennsylvania, fostering stronger links and allowing students and academics to experience and contribute to the work conducted in Quantum Motion’s London facilities. The investment by Quantum Motion will include a postdoctoral scholar, funding for a PhD student for three years, and a significant expansion of the quantum hardware testing infrastructure at the university.

John Morton, CTO of Quantum Motion, commented: "North London and Philadelphia pioneered computing in the 1940s with the development of Colossus and ENIAC, the world’s first electronic digital computers, so it is particularly exciting to be launching a partnership linking these historic locations for the development of a new generation of computers. Anthony Sigillito’s group is leading work to enable devices with improved qubit-to-qubit connectivity and new control approaches and we’re looking forward to working with him to develop a truly scalable quantum processor."

Anthony Sigillito, Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, remarked: “Quantum Motion is taking a systematic approach to understanding and overcoming the hard problems that must be tackled in order to build a long-term technology platform. Scalability is the key theme in my lab and it is clear to me that even in its early days, Quantum Motion has been assessing the prospects for scaling to larger systems. There is a tremendous amount of talent at Quantum Motion and I’m excited that my lab will be able to interact with the Quantum Motion team on a deep level.”

Quantum Motion has marked a series of peer-reviewed, record-breaking milestones in the recent two years, demonstrating silicon's potential as the fastest, most cost-effective, and scalable approach to producing the millions of qubits needed for fully-functional, fault-tolerant quantum computers. Utilising the knowledge, scalability, and manufacturing cost advantages of CMOS semiconductor technology — prevalent in today's silicon chips — the company has engineered and verified integrated circuits capable of generating, routing, and processing signals at deep cryogenic temperatures, down to a few tenths of a degree above absolute zero. The recent successful mass characterisation of thousands of multiplexed quantum dots in a tier one foundry further underscores the company’s strategic advantage.