A silicon disc containing PsiQuantum computing chips. [Image: PsiQuantum]
The US-based quantum computing company PsiQuantum in late February announced the release of Omega—a photonic chipset built for utility-scale quantum computing. The company says that the platform, described in a newly published paper in Nature (doi: 10.1038/s41586-025-08820-7), “contains all the advanced components required to build million-qubit-scale quantum computers and deliver on the profoundly world-changing promise of this technology.”
Scaling up
A significant obstacle to practical quantum computing is the ability to manufacture quantum chips in the volumes required to build a commercially viable machine. Producing a quantum computer with fault tolerance and full error correction, which PsiQuantum says are essential characteristics for a useful device, requires a very large-scale system with qubits in the millions.
The company has long maintained that a photon-based approach to quantum computing can solve these scalability problems by leveraging existing semiconductor manufacturing processes and cryogenic technologies. “For more than 25 years, it has been my conviction that in order for us to realize a useful quantum computer in my lifetime, we must find a way to fully leverage the unmatched capabilities of the semiconductor industry,” said PsiQuantum cofounder and CEO Jeremy O’Brien. “This paper vindicates that belief.”
A look at Omega
PsiQuantum says that the Omega chipset integrates high-performance single-photon sources, superconducting single-photon detectors and a next-generation optical switch into a silicon-based chip that can be produced with a high-volume manufacturing process. To achieve this integration, the company introduced a superconducting thin film, low-loss silicon nitride waveguides and an electro-optic phase switcher made of barium titanate. The team evaluated the performance of the system using a series of benchmarking circuits to test quantum operations.
PsiQuantum says that the Omega chipset integrates high-performance single-photon sources, superconducting single-photon detectors and a next-generation optical switch.
According to the Nature paper, the benchmarking circuits yielded a single-qubit state preparation and measurement fidelity (reflecting qubit initialization and readout) of 99.98%, a chip-to-chip qubit interconnect fidelity (demonstrating qubit transmission over optical fiber) of 99.72%, a quantum interference visibility (showing indistinguishability of photons from independent sources) of 99.5%, and a two-qubit fusion gate fidelity (demonstrating entangling operations) of 99.22%.
From lab to fab
The company is already producing the chips in partnership with semiconductor manufacturing giant GlobalFoundries at the latter’s fab in Albany, NY, USA. The method uses industry-standard foot-wide wafers on GlobalFoundries’ 45-nm process to achieve yields that match those of standard semiconductors, according to the companies. PsiQuantum says it has characterized millions of devices on thousands of wafers and currently performs around half a million measurements each month. It plans to break ground this year on two data-center-sized “Quantum Compute Centers” in Brisbane, Australia, and Chicago, USA.
“What sets us apart is the manufacturability and connectivity of our hardware,” said Mark Thompson, PsiQuantum cofounder and chief technologist. “Our technology is manufactured in a high-volume semiconductor fab that normally produces chips for cell phones and laptops, and now yields the world’s highest-performance photonic qubits.”