Groundbreaking Advancement: Debut of the World's First Combined Quantum-Optical Microchip
IBM Unveils Hybrid Quantum Chip, Paving the Way for Scalable Quantum Technologies
In a groundbreaking development, IBM has announced the creation of a hybrid quantum chip, marking a significant stride towards the commercialisation of quantum technologies. The chip, fabricated in a commercial 45-nm CMOS microelectronics foundry, combines quantum photonics with CMOS microelectronics on a single chip, addressing key challenges in building silicon quantum-photonic integrated circuits.
The new chip addresses challenges in several key ways. Active stabilisation via integrated electronics ensures predictable operation despite temperature changes and process variations, eliminating the need for bulky off-chip electronics. The use of a mature 45-nm CMOS platform leverages widespread industry infrastructure compatible with silicon manufacturing and mass production, making the complex quantum photonic system more scalable and manufacturable.
The hybrid integration of quantum light sources and control produces reliable streams of quantum-correlated photon pairs, a crucial resource for quantum information processing. Precision tuning with microring-resonators and photodiodes allows for real-time, on-chip active stabilisation and control of quantum photonic components, overcoming the classical control bottleneck faced by silicon quantum photonics systems.
Each silicon chip features an array of "quantum light factories", with twelve independent quantum light sources that are powered by laser light and depend on microring resonators to generate photon pairs. The chip also includes a quantum light source that generates correlated photon pairs, powered by laser and under 1 mm³ in size.
IBM's quantum ambitions extend beyond the new chip. The company is building the world's first large-scale quantum computer, called IBM Starling, expected to deliver to clients in 2029. Starling is projected to be 20,000 times more powerful than existing quantum computers and require the memory of more than a quindecillion of the world's most powerful supercomputers.
IBM Quantum Loon and Nighthawk chip will debut later this year and next year, respectively. IBM Quantum Kookaburra will follow, featuring the company's first modular processor to store and process encoded information. IBM Quantum Cockatoo, expected to be rolled out in the future, will link quantum chips together like nodes in a larger system, avoiding the need to build impractically large chip.
The use of CMOS in the hybrid chip makes the research all the more commendable, as this semiconductor technology is the cornerstone of modern electronics and is used by companies such as Samsung, Sony, Intel, and TSMC to mass-produce electronics.
IBM's Q2 2025 results showed an 8% increase in revenue to $17 billion, $6.1 billion in net cash from operating activities, and free cash flow of $4.8 billion. The company's stock price is currently trading above $265, up 28.29% YTD. IBM pays a dividend yield of 2.38%.
Quantum technology, consisting of quantum computing, quantum communication, and quantum sensing, is projected to generate $97 billion in revenue worldwide within the next decade. The chip's development is a testament to IBM's commitment to unlock immense possibilities for business with its quantum computer.
Photonics is a promising way to develop quantum technologies due to its compatibility with optical interconnects, robustness, and ability to be shrunk into a chip-scale format. The manufacturing process enables advanced optical interconnects for AI and supercomputing, and now complex quantum photonic systems on a scalable silicon platform.
IBM's latest breakthrough in quantum technology is set to revolutionise the industry, paving the way for scalable, mass-producible silicon quantum-photonic integrated circuits suitable for quantum computing, communication, and sensing applications.
References:
[1] ArXiv:2203.13961 [quant-ph] [2] Nature Electronics, Vol 4, pp. 520-527 (2021) [3] ArXiv:2108.04152 [quant-ph] [5] arXiv:2106.00612 [quant-ph]
- The hybrid quantum chip developed by IBM, which combines quantum photonics with CMOS microelectronics, could potentially revolutionize the finance industry as quantum technology is projected to generate $97 billion in revenue within the next decade.
- The use of CMOS technology in the new chip is significant because it is the cornerstone of modern electronics, currently used by major technology companies such as Samsung, Sony, Intel, and TSMC for mass-producing electronics.
- With IBM's latest advancement in space-and-astronomy ( quantum-photonics) and technology (hybrid quantum chip), they are paving the way for investing in data-and-cloud-computing, as the scalable quantum photonic system created can be used for AI and supercomputing manufacturing processes.
