A new study led by the University of California, Riverside (UCR) has demonstrated through simulations that multiple small quantum chips can be linked together into a single functioning system even when the connections between them are noisy. The research, published in Physical Review A and led by Mohamed A. Shalby, suggests a path for building larger, fault-tolerant quantum computers.
The team’s simulations found that a quantum system could still detect and correct errors even when inter-chip links were up to 10 times noisier than the chips themselves. The research used the surface code, a common quantum error correction method, and simulated thousands of modular designs to test three boundary connection strategies: a noisy direct link (DL), a CAT-state gadget, and a gate teleportation gadget. This indicates that a fault-tolerant modular quantum computer may not require perfect connections to scale. The study was an international collaboration with the University of Stuttgart in Germany and drew inspiration from work at MIT, utilizing tools from Google Quantum AI.
This research addresses a key challenge in scaling quantum processors by providing a method for building reliable systems using current hardware. The finding highlights the importance of fault tolerance for qubits to be useful, suggesting a path to scale up processors without waiting for ideal hardware. The study provides a pathway for the quantum computing community to build larger, more reliable quantum computers, which could accelerate the arrival of practical applications.
Read more about this research in Interesting Engineering here and the paper in Physical Review A here.
August 26, 2025
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