New Partnership Aims to Make Key Quantum Computing Hardware Available to Researchers

The Laboratory for Physical Sciences (LPS) at the University of Maryland is joining industry partners and a federal research lab to make state-of-the-art quantum computing components available to leading U.S. research groups to enable groundbreaking scientific research and discovery.

The program known as the Qubits for Computing Foundry is being launched by LPS’s Qubit Collaboratory in conjunction with the Army Research Office, Lincoln Laboratory, Intel Corp. and HRL Laboratories. It’s aimed at overcoming barriers to entry in certain areas of quantum research created by the high cost of producing state-of-the-art qubit devices such as superconducting and spin qubits—two of the leading approaches to processing quantum information in quantum computers.

Streamlining the process for getting qubits to research teams will enable them to focus resources on advancing the science without needing to invest in building their own fabrication facilities.

“The Qubits for Computing Foundry program epitomizes the LPS Qubit Collaboratory and its mission to bring the best of academia, industry, national labs and the government together to train the next generation of scientists and tackle the hardest problems facing quantum information science,” said Charles Tahan, director of the LPS Qubit Collaboratory.

Starting initially with a small number of research user groups, QCF’s goal with each foundry is to optimize the user-foundry interaction model to include design rules, prescreening and measurement feedback loops. With sufficient success, the next phase will bring on new users and capabilities, such as new materials or increased device design flexibility.

“The Qubit Foundry program supports the objectives of the LPS Qubit Collaboratory and the U.S. National Quantum Initiative to move the science of qubits forward,” said T.R. Govindan, program manager at the Army Research Office. “I’m pleased these world-class institutions are helping the whole field by working with us.”