Developing tomorrow’s quantum photonic hardware

Quantum computers face many bottlenecks towards upscaling the number of qubits and increasing their computational power. To manipulate and measure the qubits, electrical signals need to be sent from the cryostat to the room temperature control electronics and vice versa using radio frequency (RF) interconnects. The bandwidth and thermal isolation limitations of these electrical interconnects poses a bottleneck. And like for their classical counterparts, hope lies in replacing the RF-links by optical fibers, resulting in a hybrid situation where RF-qubits will be used for computation and optical qubits will serve for remote communication. However, quantum photonic hardware capable of transducing electrical to optical quantum signals have so far remained elusive. At imec, we are pushing the boundaries of quantum photonic hardware by combining fundamental material research into novel electro-optical materials with novel device concepts and trying to bring them to life by our advanced integration capabilities. Achieving this ambitious goal would also enable classical photonic hardware that could push the boundaries of light communication towards shortest reach such as inter and intra chip communications.