Intel’s Cryogen Wafer Prober is a vital step in making quantum computing mainstream. Working with its partners, Bluefors and Afore, Intel has created a silicon wafer checking machine capable of operating at the sorts of frighteningly low temperatures necessary for the operating of quantum computers. This cryoprober means quantum wafers can be validated in the lab to see if the relevant qubits are functioning properly, and doing this before they’re fully built into a complete machine saves a huge amount of time and makes volume production of quantum processors genuinely viable.

The Cryogenic Wafer Prober operates with 300mm wafers and because the switching characteristics of spin qubits has to be measured at temperatures colder than space it has to function at just a couple of kelvins. Checking traditional binary transistors is a piece of cake by comparison…

Currently the method of checking the functionality of a quantum processor can take months, and that happens well after manufacturing. Standard silicon transistors, however, can be checked in hours on a 300mm wafer and that’s the speed Intel wants to get towards with the cryprober.