S-Transistors, a newly launched Finnish startup and a spin-off from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, has raised €2.6 million in pre-Seed funding to deliver a new class of integrated circuits based on superconducting transistors.
The round was led by Lifeline Ventures, a leading Nordic investor, and joined by an angel investor. The company plans to use this capital to develop several product prototypes for cryogenic signal control and handling, set up its own cryogenic laboratory, establish a manufacturing pilot line for its integrated circuits based on superconducting transistors, and grow the team.
Dr. Heorhii Bohuslavskyi, co-founder and CEO of S-Transistors, said, “Today’s efforts in scaling cryogenic quantum computers have delivered tremendous progress, with several practical use cases already demonstrated. However, further scaling is approaching a hard wall, as it still relies on power-hungry room-temperature electronics and separate wiring for each quantum bit (qubit) — both used to operate the quantum computer and link it to the outside world.
“The clearest path forward, for superconducting quantum computers in particular, is to bring the classical control and interface hardware down into the cryostat, right next to the quantum chip kept cold to protect its fragile quantum states. The catch is that such integration is extremely demanding in power dissipation, speed, and energy efficiency. Superconducting transistors are exactly that missing piece of hardware for large-scale, energy-efficient quantum computing.”
S-Transistors claims to be disrupting the way large-scale quantum computers are controlled by delivering a new class of electronic devices: superconducting transistors. The company is on a mission to develop quantum motherboards that will provide energy- and cost-efficient orchestration of cryogenic quantum computers at scale.
According to the company, today’s cryogenically cooled superconducting quantum computers require a new approach to overcome the scaling limit of the quantum processing unit (QPU), the array of quantum bits that, by analogy to a conventional CPU, performs the quantum computation.
It argues that this limit comes from the “power-hungry” and “poorly scalable” way quantum processors are controlled today: multiple expensive, bulky cables per qubit, running from the processor inside the cryostat out to room-temperature electronics.
Much of the electronics used to control the qubits and transmit signals to and from the quantum processor operates outside the cryogenic environment that hosts the quantum-processing chip. Moving it closer to the quantum processor and operating it at extremely low temperatures could significantly improve scalability; however, S-Transistors notes that this is not simply a matter of placing conventional chips in the cold.
“Although some industrial silicon transistors can operate at deep cryogenic temperatures, they struggle to combine the performance needed to control large numbers of qubits with extremely low power consumption. Excess heat can disrupt the cryogenic environment and interfere with the quantum processor’s fragile operations,” the Finnish startup explained.
S-Transistors claims that this is where its superconducting transistor technology, which is already available at wafer scale, offers a solution that is “radically” more energy-efficient and compact than existing alternatives. The company highlights that superconducting transistors offer a promising solution to this very problem. They combine ultra-low power consumption and high-speed performance while remaining compatible with the quantum processor’s cryogenic environment.
Dr. Andrey Generalov, co-founder and CTO of S-Transistors, said, “When you think about it, the transistor is the most mass-manufactured device in human history. By combining the transistor functionality, with its unparalleled computing potential, and the superconducting property of near-zero power dissipation in a single device, we can reach a completely new level of energy-efficient cryogenic computing.
“In the near term, this already solves the cryogenic signal routing and delivery problems the superconducting quantum computer, but the real vision is the quantum motherboard: a completely new platform for scaling quantum computers, operating at mK temperatures, and controlling the operation of qubit-based QPU.”
S-Transistors’ first product is a superconducting-transistor-based multiplexer that plugs into existing cryogenic setups and speeds up the development and prototyping of various quantum devices. The company reports that it will ship to early customers and strategic partners in its first year of operation.
According to S-Transistor, scalable and reproducible superconducting transistor technology today has strong potential across classical and quantum computing, artificial intelligence, high-performance computing hardware, spacecraft electronics, and fundamental particle detectors. It intends to be the one to take that first step from lab to fab, toward customer adoption of this technology.
Source: EU-Startups
