Diraq, Quantum Computing Built in Standard Silicon

Diraq builds qubits the way the world builds chips. The Australian company makes them in silicon, on the same lines that turn out ordinary computer processors. It spun out of UNSW Sydney and is run by its founder, Andrew Dzurak, whose group worked on silicon qubits for two decades before the business existed. The bet is simple. If you can make a qubit on a standard production line, you can make millions of them, and millions is what a working error-corrected machine will need. That argument has drawn venture money, a United States CHIPS Act letter of intent and a place in a US defence benchmarking programme. 1. Silicon spin qubits in CMOS. Diraq stores quantum information in the spin of an electron, held inside a modified silicon transistor. The point is reuse. The same lines that make ordinary chips can make these. 2. UNSW Sydney spin-out. The company was founded by Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, who remains chief executive and founder. The underlying research program at UNSW ran for around two decades before the business launched. 3. Foundry-made qubits that hit fidelity targets. Working with imec on a 300mm line, Diraq reported unit cells with single- and two-qubit fidelities…