Matt Eichenfield

Stories

The race to a million qubits

Leading CMOS photonics research for quantum control systems

Quantum computers could help with drug discovery, codebreaking and materials science, but only if they grow from dozens of quantum bits (qubits) to millions. The bottleneck is control: each qubit needs precisely steered light or microwaves, and thousands of cables run into refrigerators colder than deep space. Chipmakers are trying to move that control hardware onto standard production lines, as CU Boulder's December 2025 optical modulator did.

Updated Nov 1

The race to scale quantum computing

New Capabilities

As of July 2026: Leading acousto-optic quantum control research

Quantum computers can already outperform classical supercomputers on specific tasks, as Google's Willow chip demonstrated when it solved in five minutes a problem that would take the fastest machines 10 septillion years. The breakthrough, announced in October 2025, marks the first verifiable quantum advantage, achieved with Google's Quantum Echoes algorithm, which is 13,000 times faster than supercomputers. But scaling from 100-qubit systems to the million-qubit machines needed for real-world applications requires control hardware that doesn't exist, and current laser systems are tabletop-sized, power-hungry, and impossible to replicate thousands of times over.

Updated Jul 9

Notable Quotes

"By using CMOS fabrication, in the future, researchers can produce thousands or even millions of identical versions of photonic devices, which is exactly what quantum computing will need." - On the breakthrough's manufacturing implications

from The race to a million qubits · Updated Nov 1

This device generates laser frequency shifts while using about 80 times less microwave power than many existing commercial modulators. Lower power consumption means less heat, and that allows more channels to be packed closely together.

from The race to scale quantum computing · Updated Jul 9