DRDO’s young scientists complete testing of 6-qubit quantum processor

NEW DELHI — Scientists from DRDO’s Young Scientists Laboratory for Quantum Technologies (DYSL-QT) have completed end-to-end testing of a 6-qubit quantum processor, the Ministry of Defence said.

“The project executed at TIFR Mumbai’s Colaba campus is a three-way collaboration between DYSL-QT, TIFR and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). The DYSL-QT scientists put together the control and measurement apparatus using a combination of commercial off-the-shelf electronics and custom-programmed development boards,” the ministry said.

It added that these qubits were designed and fabricated at TIFR and the quantum processor architecture is based on a novel ring-resonator design invented at TIFR. The cloud-based interface to the quantum hardware is developed by TCS.

“The scientists are now working on optimising various aspects of the system performance before it becomes ready for operation,” the ministry said.

The ministry added that plans are underway to provide wider access to this system for education, and research and eventually as a test bed for testing superconducting quantum devices for analysis.

“The next development target is to scale up the number of qubits and assess the scaling trends to technology challenges, development effort/time and monetary resources required for development, operations and commercialisation of various sizes of quantum computers,” it added.

The ministry said that this will involve a holistic view from the quantum theory to engineering to business feasibility.