Infleqtion is unique amongst quantum companies due its participation in so many different segments of the quantum computing industry including quantum components, quantum computers, quantum software, and quantum sensors. This strategy of a broad product portfolio provides both advantages and disadvantages for a company. The potential advantages include achieving synergy between different product areas with the neutral atom, atomic prism, photonic, software, and other technologies they have developed over the years. It also brings some diversity in the revenue streams because some products will provide early revenue while others might take a few years of development before they can make a revenue contribution. The potential disadvantages could include execution risks if the engineering resources are spread too thin. Also, there may be different sets of customers and sales channels for the different product lines which can increase the complexities of managing a sales force, calling on customers, and generating new business.
Nonetheless, Infleqtion has made some interesting announcements in the past few months. In 2023 alone, the Quantum Computing Report by GQI ran 17 different stories that included Infleqtion. This week they hosted a webinar to discuss their product roadmaps for sensors, software, and computing. The highlight of the webinar was the announcement of their quantum computing roadmap. In this article, we will cover their plans for quantum computing, but first we will start with the progress they talked about in quantum sensors and quantum software and then discuss quantum computing afterwards.
Sensors
Infleqtion’s discussion of sensor products included ones named Tiqker, Sqywire, and eXaqt. Tiqker is a small form factor ultra-accurate clock intended for use in navigation, data centers, and communication networks. The company asserts that this clock is 100X more accurate than cesium beam atomic clocks and 100,000X more accurate than a crystal oscillator. In navigation applications it can be used in GPS-denied environments and in communication networks it can help increase bandwidth and reduce latencies due to the more precise clocking of the data signals. The company mentioned that they are partnering with a large company for use of Tiqker in data center applications and that Tiqker is now available for pre-order. Sqywire is an ultra-sensitive radio frequency (RF) receiver that senses RF signals with Rydberg state atom-based sensing. It can be used installed of a classical antenna and provides high sensitivity, lower power, and ultra-wide bandwidth in a form factor. It can operate anywhere from kilohertz to terahertz and also provides robustness against jamming as the unit does not contain any analog components. Although the company didn’t provide much details, they have a future product in development called eXaQt which is a small form factor device for Position, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) and also for gravitational sensing use cases. All of these products are built upon Infleqtion’s quantum cores components including magneto-optical traps, atomic prisms, photonic-integrated circuits, and control systems that the company has been developing since they were founded in 2007 as ColdQuanta.
Software
In May of 2022, Infleqtion acquired quantum software startup company Super.Tech to become the software division of the company. The key product from this group is called Superstaq which delivers cross-layer optimization to make the hardware work as efficiently and effectively as possible. Since then the Infleqtion has integrated this team into the company and is utilizing this software technology in their products. In the update, Infleqtion provided some examples of where the software is already in use. They mentioned that Superstaq was able to provide a 400% improvement in the two-qubit error rate of Infleqtion’s neutral atom processor. They also mentioned that the software is hardware agnostic and can be used with superconducting and ion-trapped based hardware too. Infleqtion is partnering with Oxford Quantum Circuits to participate in an exercise called Defence Cyber Marvel 3 which is Europe’s largest cyber warfare exercise. They also mentioned other applications including utilizing quantum machine learning and are partnering with organizations including Wellcome Leap, University of Chicago, DARPA, and Qinetiq to research these applications. Infleqtion also announced the alpha launch of a new open-source software package called qLDPC for designing error correction codes using Low Density Parity Check codes. qLDPC codes are much more efficient and resilient than the other codes used for quantum error correction. Infleqtion intends on using a qLDPC code in their future error corrected quantum computers. Using this software, the company mentioned that they have already discovered new error correction codes.
Quantum Computing Roadmap
As mentioned earlier, the most interesting announcement from Infleqtion was their roadmap for their quantum processors. They have been working hard to both scale up the number of qubits in their processors as well as improve the gate fidelity of those qubits. The company has developed new quantum computing system called Sqorpius which has 1600 qubits loaded in a 40×40 array on a single chip. They also have made significant improvements in gate fidelity over the past year. They showed a chart which indicated that their two-qubit, CZ gate fidelity was at about 95.5% earlier in 2023 and over the past year they have made significant improvements. Their latest two-qubit fidelity measurement is not at 98.7% and they have a goal of achieving 99.5% by the end of 2024. That level would be high enough to allow them to start testing out various error correction schemes. One method that Infleqtion is planning on using to achieve these results is to use dual species of atoms, Rubidium and Cesium, on the chip. These are arranged in a checkboard pattern and the advantage is that these two elements respond to two different wavelengths of laser light for control. This minimizes potential interference between the qubits and allows them to achieve high speed and negligible crosstalk. The company has a roadmap to offer an early fault tolerant quantum processor for commercial use within the next four years. They are planning to use the 1600 qubit array to demonstrate 2 logical qubits this year. Then in 2026, they will be implementing a machine with advanced photonic beam steering to develop a processor with 8000 physical qubits and over 10 logical qubits. And in 2028 they will scale the design further to achieve quantum computer with 40,000 physical qubits and over 100 logical qubits. That machine would be able to process quantum programs with circuit depths of over 1,000,000 layers and process logical gate operations at a kilohertz (Khz) rate. A chart showing this roadmap for their quantum processors is shown below and another chart that shows the recent improvements in gate fidelity is shown below that.
Manufacturing
One other area that Infleqtion is focusing on that is not product related is manufacturing. Because they offer sensor products, they need to have a much different manufacturing strategy than a company that only produces quantum computers. Whereas a company only producing quantum computers may only need to produce a few dozen machines per year, the volumes of quantum sensors could exceed the hundreds of thousands or even millions of units per year. So ensuring they have a robust supply chain is very important to them. Infleqtion is taking steps to be able to do this. We reported last month about their acquisition of SiNoptiq and Morton Photonics. The companies will help Infleqtion increase its capability for creating photonic integrated circuits (PIC). This PIC technology will be very important for reducing the cost, size, and power of their sensor products as well as implementing the advanced photonic beam splitting technology and other things needed in their future quantum processors.
In order to prepare for higher volume manufacturing, the company has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Texas A&M University and the Texas A&M Semiconductor Institute to provide a facility in Texas for development, experimentation, and testing. This will provide them a base to expand to volume manufacturing once the demand is there.
For more about Infleqtion’s roadmap, you can read a press release they have provided here and also a video recording of their recent roadmap presentation which you can access here.
February 9, 2024