15.5 Cryo-CMOS circuits and systems for scalable quantum computing

Quantum computing holds the promise to achieve unprecedented computation power and to solve problems today intractable. State-of-the-art quantum processors consist of arrays of quantum bits (qubits) operating at a very low base temperature, typically a few tens of mK, as shown in Fig. 15.5.1 The qubit states degrade naturally after a certain time, upon loss of quantum coherence. For proper operation, an error-correcting loop must be implemented by a classical controller, which, in addition of handling execution of a quantum algorithm, reads the qubit state and performs the required corrections. However, while few qubits (∼10) in today's quantum processors can be easily connected to a room-temperature controller, it appears extremely challenging, if not impossible, to manage the thousands of qubits required in practical quantum algorithms [1].