Dr. Jim Clarke is the director of the Quantum Hardware research group within Intel’s Components Research Organization. Jim launched Intel’s Quantum Computing effort in 2015, as well as a research partnership with QuTech (TU Delft and TNO). His group’s primary focus is to use Intel’s process expertise to develop scalable qubit arrays. In 2018, Jim worked with industry leaders and the Intel policy group to influence the U.S. National Quantum Initiative Act. Prior to his current role, Jim managed a group focused on interconnect research at advanced technology nodes as well as evaluating new materials and paradigms for interconnect performance. He has co-authored more than 100 papers and has over 50 patents. Prior to joining Intel in 2001, Jim completed a B.S. in chemistry at Indiana University, a Ph.D. in physical chemistry at Harvard University and a post-doctoral fellowship in physical organic chemistry at ETH, Zürich.
Today’s quantum processors are limited to 10’s of entangled quantum bits. If you believe the hype, a commercially relevant system is just around the corner that can outperform our largest supercomputers. The reality, however, is that we are still early in this journey. There are many unanswered, yet fundamental questions. At Intel, our approach is to rely on the continued evolution of Moore’s Law to build qubit arrays with a high degree of process control.
Here, we present progress toward the realization of 300mm spin qubit devices in a production environment. This includes (i) isotopically purified 28Si epi substrates with a compelling substrate quality (ii) design of a custom qubit layout, (iii) integration of spin qubit devices using extreme ultraviolet lithography, moving from classical transistor structures to full spin qubits, and (iv) the realization of quantum dots in a nested gate design novel to a 300mm process line.
But a quantum computer is more than a chip full of qubits. A full stack is necessary and spans qubits to control to computer architecture. In constructing a full-stack quantum computing system, there are many interdisciplinary research questions that cross the boundaries between physics, engineering and computer architecture. While the promise is quantum computing is great, the challenges of bringing a quantum computing out of the lab and into reality full computer system span across the stack. Here we will also go beyond the qubit plane and give an overview of Intel’s quantum computing research.