Keysight and Quantum

I received a request to say more about Keysight's quantum pursuits after referencing quantum computing in the last post. It's certainly an exciting area for us and we have a great team of customer-focused innovators addressing the opportunity. Among the brain trust are the founders and CEOs of three quantum computing oriented companies we've acquired in recent years. Pictured from left to right below are General Manager and 25-year Keysight veteran Liz Ruetsch, Dr. Marc Almendros (from Signadyne), Dr. Simon Gustavvson (from Labber), and Dr. Joseph Emerson (from Quantum Benchmark).

Helping progress quantum computing research and commercialization is a natural for us, because the major types of qubits being developed today –– superconducting, trapped ions, and electron spins –– all require high-precision electronic or optical stimulus and response for control and readout. Software is critical for controlling the instrumentation, especially as the number of qubits and the coherence times scale up, and for characterizing and correcting errors. So what we're doing is another example of Keysight's full solutions strategy (Hardware + Software + Services) in action.

For those curious about the fundamentals of qubits and what makes them so special, you can read about all them here. The characteristics of superposition and entanglement are what distinguish quantum computing using qubits from classical computing using bits, and what give rise to the potential for fundamental breakthroughs in the types of problems that can be solved using this type of computation. And for those who want to dive deeper, the subject of quantum gates is a good next step, with quantum algorithms another fascinating topic. (Some of this may make your head hurt, but you can search around for videos and other educational material, and as with many advanced subjects I've found that it gets easier upon repeated exposure.) Like what happened with digital circuits and classical computing, there's an abstraction hierarchy developing, in this case from the raw qubit hardware upward into various layers of a software stack that includes specialized programming languages and operating systems.

Today's quantum computers are strange and beautiful machines. In most cases the inside looks something like the image at top here, though the qubits themselves are part of a much smaller device located at the bottom of the column. The column carries the control and readout signals back and forth and is part of a dilution refrigerator that cools the qubits to a fraction of a degree above absolute zero (about -273 degrees C or -459 degrees F). This means the computers are cool both figuratively and literally. 😊 Thermal energy represents a disturbance to the isolated environment qubits require in order to maintain their unique properties, so colder is better. When completely packaged inside the refrigerator, the computers often appear as below –– a bit less exotic but still pretty unique.

Keysight has quantum partnerships with MIT and other leading universities, with the Quantum Economic Development Consortium, and with commercial enterprises around the world, partnerships that help us both learn about and contribute to this rapidly-developing field.

"My collaboration with Keysight and the Boulder Cryogenic Quantum Testbed has been instrumental in understanding the precision of microwave measurements at millikelvin temperatures. In just a little over a year, we've built a very effective collaboration at bringing high precision test and measurement techniques and calibrations to superconducting quantum systems." – Josh Mutus, Sr. Research Scientist, Google AI Quantum

We're also partnering with the Women in Quantum Chapter of OneQuantum.org, in support of career development in quantum engineering professions.

In addition to quantum computing, we're working to help accelerate innovation in quantum sensing, quantum communications, and quantum materials. It's exciting stuff without a doubt, with much more to come. Kudos to all the physicists, mathematicians, engineers, and everyone else driving quantum forward!