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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PIEDMONS (Portable Ion Devices for Mobile-Oriented Next-generation semiconductor Technologies)

Teaser

Summary

The PIEDMONS project addresses breakthrough innovations for the design and manufacturing of affordable new generation quantum devices:

â€¢ The development and the testing of a portable ion-trap reproducible in large scale, and based on low-cost semiconductor MEMS technologies.
â€¢ The development and testing of a novel quantum secured partioned Electric Electronic architecture exploitatable in a multitude of sectors

With INFINEON Technologies, world leader in MEMS semiconductors, and two leading edge University in the field of Quantum computing (University of Innsbruck and ETH Zurich) the PIEDMONS project aims to the ambitious and long-term, but at the same way concrete and plausible goal of designing, implementing, experimenting and finding first applications for the basic building blocks of future quantum computers. Thanks to the experience of a high-tech SME (IFEVS) well known in the European Research Arena, it aims to the challenging objective of implementing first applications of these technologies in the huge market of consumer nomadic devices safe and secure, firstly in the mobility sector.

The expected results of the project will establish the baseline of new scientific and technological research and future uses, which cannot yet be anticipated, but for sure will strengthen the European leadership in a sector that is expected to be strategical over the forthcoming decades. Demonstration of the feasibility of GPS-free positioning, portable atomic clocks, quantum cryptography and security in the short distance are the very challenging objectives in which the PIEDMONS project will measure and validate its performances. The project will involve a large audience and diverse actors in the scientific community and in the stakeholders through ad-hoc dissemination actions, while at the same time generating and preserving strategic Intellectual Property.

Work performed

Overall the consortium is proud of the results achieved so far that are also in a way anticipating the expected timeline and paving the way for a successful exploitation of these technologies in a commercial phase, with particular emphasis on the automotive market. The ion-trap based on CMOS-compatible MEMS fabrication process is a reality and characterisation experiments are successfully ongoing. So far the results are more than encouraging, while a major challenge expected for the next period is the capacity to run the experiments at room temperature. Therefore, expectations of the consortium are, to date, more than optimistic. The consortium is also striving to enlarge the focus of the possible application to other domains and to other automotive application, with the aim to unleash the full exploitation potential and the commercial possibilities of such breaking through technology. The success of this project is measured against the below mentioned specific objectives as per the DoA.
1) Proof of concepts of quantum ion-traps based on CMOS-compatible MEMS fabrication process
2) Proof of concepts of quantum secured E/E architecture based on optical fiber link in the short range (in-vehicle communication)
So far, the first objective has been reached while experiments and characterization are ongoing together with the formulation of advanced application targeting high accuracy automated drive; some preliminary achievements for the second objective has been demonstrated as well despite most activities are expected in the second period.

Final results

Overall PIEDMONS is pursuing the research on affordable semiconductor manufacturing technologies for the emerging second-generation quantum devices. The long-term vision of the project is the realization of commercial ion-traps, suitable for the full spectrum of both classical and quantum industry applications.
The project is on track to produce ion traps using a CMOS compatible MEMS process, which have a very high potential for quantum computing, clock and sensing applications.
Quantum computing is of strategic importance to the European community as it addresses several of societyâ€™s major challenges. For example, quantum computing can contribute to solutions by enabling, for instance, the simulation of complex molecules dynamics, thus contributing to the design of novel materials in several domains including agriculture, energy, transportation etc.
However, the practical implementation of quantum computing is hindered by a lack of cooperation between academic research and industrial application. The PIEDMONS project creates close ties between the involved parties and will thereby serve as a condensation point for future collaborations between industry and academia.