AQT Milestones & Status

Our Roots

The First Dilution Fridge

Prior to the establishment of the DOE AQT program, LBNL internal investments seeded the acquisition of a large, 1000 microwatt dilution refrigerator targeting full control of 128 qubits. This tool is the main instrument accessible to DOE users of the AQT, and is fully capable of remote operation. The current hardware configuration involves the parallel operation of multiple processor architectures to explore a larger design and application tradespace.

To house the house the hardware and diverse AQT research team under one room, LBNL is renovating B73 to be a central hub for quantum information related activities. The building has precision temperature control, electromagnetic shielding, and custom infrastructure for quantum computing research. The collaborative meeting office and meeting spaces provide an interactive workspace for local scientists and current users visiting the AQT.

2019

First Light

Phase I: 8 - 32 qubit processors with gate / readout fidelities > 95%; coherence > 50 microseconds
Continuous hardware improvements leveraging wiring for extensibility with > 99% fidelity

2020

Trailblazing Computations with Beta Users

Using circuits to determine quantum capacity: verification/validation, noise detection, suppression, mitigation, fault tolerance, …
Quantum simulation experiments in optimization, computation, machine learning; materials science; and high-energy physics

2020

User Program Inauguration

20+ research proposals were submitted at the inaugural call (Fall 2020), ranging over a variety of topics:
• Algorithms or Simulations
• Characterization validation or control
• Control hardware, firmware, or software
• Processor architectures

2021

Broad Community Engagement

Define next generation architectures and algorithms via co-design.

• On average 5-6 current active users at the testbed, engaging with AQT’s staff of 20+ researchers. These projects represent deep scientific collaborations that may extend over a considerable period of time, often 3-6 months. Users may engage at the fundamental level of hardware fabrication, customization, study, deployment, etc.
• Users come from a variety of backgrounds, companies, academic institutions, and national labs.
• New research proposals continue to be reviewed on an ongoing basis and second open call for user proposals in Fall 2021.

• Continued expansion of quantum processor library available for users
- Increased quantum volume (faster gates, parametric coupling and control, smart compiling)
- Larger numbers of qubits [10-20]
- Additional circuits and topologies - flux-based devices (fluxonium), and bosonic encoded qubits (Kerr-Cat)
• Enhanced control options, including fast feedback – a feature requested by several users.
• Exploration of distributed / modular computing architectures
• Planning stages for Building 73 (B73), a new state-of-the-art quantum information science complex at Berkeley Lab. Current infrastructure at UC Berkeley campus will be relocated to B73.