Housing Qubit Devices in an Electromagnetic Waveguide System

• US 20160292587A1
• Filed: 02/27/2015
• Published: 10/06/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rigetti & Co., Inc.
• Original Assignee: Rigetti & Co., Inc.
• Inventors: RIGETTI, Chad Tyler, THOMPSON, Dane Christoffer
• Granted Patent: US 10,496,934 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/36 for access to common bus or bus system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4068 Electrical coupling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/80 comprising an array of processing units with common control, e.g. single instruction multiple data processors G06F15/82 takes precedence ; for correlation function computation G06F17/15
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 10/00 Quantum computing, i.e. information processing based on quantum-mechanical phenomena
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 20/00 Machine learning

Abstract

In some aspects, a quantum computing system includes an electromagnetic waveguide system. The waveguide system has an interior surface that defines an interior volume of intersecting waveguides. Qubit devices are housed in the waveguide system. In some cases, the intersecting waveguides each define a cutoff frequency, and the qubit devices have qubit operating frequencies below the cutoff frequency. In some cases, coupler devices are housed in the waveguide system; each coupler device is configured to selectively couple a pair of neighboring qubit devices based on control signals received from a control source.

Claims

1-4. -4. (canceled)

5. A quantum computing system comprising:

a quantum processor cell assembly comprising an electromagnetic waveguide system, the electromagnetic waveguide system comprising an interior surface that defines an interior volume of intersecting waveguides, the intersecting waveguides defining cutoff frequencies and being configured to evanesce electromagnetic waves below the cutoff frequencies; and

a multi-dimensional array of qubit devices housed in the electromagnetic waveguide system, the qubit devices having respective qubit operating frequencies below the cutoff frequencies.

6. The quantum computing system of claim 5, wherein the electromagnetic waveguide system defines a two-dimensional waveguide lattice in which a first subset of the waveguides intersect a second subset of the waveguides at a two-dimensional array of waveguide intersections, and the cutoff frequencies are independent of the size of the two-dimensional array.

7. The quantum computing system of claim 6, wherein the two-dimensional array comprises rows and columns, and the cutoff frequencies are independent of the number of rows and the number of columns.

8. The quantum computing system of claim 5, wherein the electromagnetic waveguide system defines a three-dimensional waveguide lattice in which three distinct subsets of the waveguides intersect each other at a three-dimensional array of waveguide intersections, and the cutoff frequencies are independent of the size of the three-dimensional array.

9. The quantum computing system of claim 8, wherein the three-dimensional array comprises rows, columns and layers, and the cutoff frequencies are independent of the number of rows, the number of columns, and the number of layers.

10. The quantum computing system of claim 5, wherein the interior surface defines waveguide cross-sections, and the cutoff frequencies are defined by the waveguide cross-sections.

16. The quantum computing system of claim 5, wherein a first subset of the waveguides intersecting a second subset of the waveguides at a multi-dimensional array of waveguide intersections in the quantum processor cell assembly, the quantum computing system comprising:

the qubit devices housed at the waveguide intersections; and

coupler devices housed between neighboring pairs of the qubit devices within the quantum processor cell assembly.

17. The quantum computing system of claim 16, wherein the multi-dimensional array of waveguide intersections is aligned with the multi-dimensional array of qubit devices.

18. The quantum computing system of claim 5, wherein a first subset of the waveguides intersecting a second subset of the waveguides at a multi-dimensional array of waveguide intersections in the quantum processor cell assembly, the quantum computing system comprising:

coupler devices housed at the waveguide intersections; and

the qubit devices housed within the quantum processor cell assembly between neighboring pairs of the coupler devices.

19. The quantum computing system of claim 5, further comprising readout devices housed in the quantum processor cell assembly, the readout devices operably coupled to the qubit devices and configured to produce qubit readout signals based on electromagnetic interactions with the qubit devices.

20. The quantum computing system of claim 5, wherein at least a portion of the interior surface comprises a superconducting material.

21. The quantum computing system of claim 5, wherein at least a portion of the interior surface comprises a metallic conductor material.

11-15. -15. (canceled)

22. (canceled)

23. A quantum computing method comprising:

receiving qubit control signals at a multi-dimensional array of qubit devices in an electromagnetic waveguide system of a quantum processor cell assembly, the qubit devices having respective qubit operating frequencies,

the electromagnetic waveguide system comprising an interior surface that defines an interior volume of intersecting waveguides, each intersecting waveguide defining a cutoff frequency above the qubit operating frequency and being configured to evanesce electromagnetic waves below the cutoff frequency.

24. The quantum computing method of claim 23, wherein the electromagnetic waveguide system defines apertures through a portion of the interior surface, and the qubit control signals are received over control lines that extend in the apertures and couple the qubit devices with an external control system.

33. The quantum computing method of claim 23, wherein receiving the qubit control signals causes the qubit devices to process information encoded in the qubit devices.

34. The quantum computing method of claim 23, further comprising receiving coupler control signals at coupler device housed between neighboring pairs of the qubit devices in the electromagnetic waveguide system.

35. The quantum computing method of claim 23, further comprising producing qubit readout signal at readout devices that are housed in the electromagnetic waveguide system and coupled to the qubit devices, the qubit readout signals produced in response to readout control signals delivered to the readout devices.

25-32. -32. (canceled)

36-39. -39. (canceled)

40. A quantum computing system comprising:

a quantum processor cell assembly comprising an electromagnetic waveguide system, the electromagnetic waveguide system comprising an interior surface that defines an interior volume of intersecting waveguides, a first subset of the waveguides intersecting a second subset of the waveguides at a multi-dimensional array of waveguide intersections in the quantum processor cell assembly, the waveguide intersections comprising portions of the interior volume that are shared between the first subset and the second subset; and

a multi-dimensional array of qubit devices housed in the electromagnetic waveguide system.

44. The quantum computing system of claim 40, wherein at least a portion of the interior surface comprises a superconducting material.

45. The quantum computing system of claim 40, wherein at least a portion of the interior surface comprises a metallic conductor material.

46. The quantum computing system of claim 40, wherein the electromagnetic waveguide system defines apertures through a portion of the interior surface about the waveguide intersections.

47. The quantum computing system of claim 46, further comprising control lines that couple the qubit devices with an external control system, and the control lines extend in the apertures.

48. The quantum computing system of claim 40, wherein the electromagnetic waveguide system comprises a two-dimensional waveguide lattice in which the first subset of waveguides are parallel to each other and the second subset of waveguides are parallel to each other.

49. The quantum computing system of claim 48, wherein the first subset of waveguides are perpendicular to the second subset of waveguides, and the first subset intersect the second subset at right angles in the quantum processor cell assembly.

50. The quantum computing system of claim 40, wherein each of the waveguides comprises at least one subsection that has a substantially rectangular cross-section defined by opposing right and left sidewalls of the electromagnetic waveguide system.

51. The quantum computing system of claim 50, wherein the rectangular cross-section is partially defined by opposing upper and lower sidewalls of the electromagnetic waveguide system.

52. The quantum computing system of claim 50, wherein, at each waveguide intersection, the right and left sidewalls of a waveguide in the first subset meet the right and left sidewalls of a waveguide in the second subset.

53. The quantum computing system of claim 40, wherein the interior surface comprises sidewalls made of at least one of metallic conducting material or superconducting material.

54. The quantum computing system of claim 40, comprising:

qubit devices housed at the waveguide intersections; and

coupler devices housed in the electromagnetic waveguide system between respective pairs of the qubit devices.

55. The quantum computing system of claim 40, comprising:

coupler devices housed at the waveguide intersections; and

qubit devices housed in the electromagnetic waveguide system between respective pairs of the coupler devices.

41-43. -43. (canceled)

56-67. -67. (canceled)

68. A quantum computing method comprising:

receiving qubit control signals at qubit devices housed in an electromagnetic waveguide system of a quantum processor cell assembly,

the electromagnetic waveguide system comprising an interior surface that defines an interior volume of intersecting waveguides, a first subset of the waveguides intersecting a second subset of the waveguides at a multi-dimensional array of waveguide intersections in the quantum processor cell assembly, the waveguide intersections comprising portions of the interior volume that are shared between the first subset and the second subset.

73. The quantum computing method of claim 68, wherein the qubit control signals cause the qubit devices to process information encoded in the qubit devices.

74. The quantum computing method of claim 68, further comprising receiving coupler control signals at coupler devices housed between neighboring pairs of the qubit devices in the electromagnetic waveguide system.

75. The quantum computing method of claim 74, wherein receiving the coupler control signals at the coupler devices causes the coupler devices to produce electromagnetic interactions between the neighboring pairs of qubit devices.

76. The quantum computing method of claim 68, further comprising producing qubit readout signals at readout devices that are housed in the electromagnetic waveguide system and coupled to the qubit devices, the qubit readout signals produced in response to readout control signals delivered to the readout devices.

69-72. -72. (canceled)

77-134. -134. (canceled)