Quantum Industries

Founded in 2018 as a spin-off from Harvard University and MIT labs, QuEra focuses on "neutral atom (Rydberg array)" technology. Its core technology uses atoms and lasers to encode qubits, building scalable quantum computers. The company has advanced this technology from the lab to cloud and on-premises deployments and has published a roadmap toward large-scale, error-corrected, and fault-tolerant quantum computation.

Neutral Atom Qubit Technology

The neutral atom qubit technology adopted by QuEra uses Rubidium-87 atoms as qubits. Hundreds of atoms are arranged into 2D arrays using optical tweezers, and their outer valence electrons are excited to high-energy Rydberg states to encode quantum information. QuEra's processor architecture is called a "Field-Programmable Qubit Array (FPQA)," which allows the arrangement of atomic qubits to be dynamically reconfigured via software. This feature of programmable geometry means that users can change the spatial layout of the qubits before each computation without needing to replace the physical hardware circuit. Currently, QuEra's Aquila system operates in analog mode (where algorithms evolve through continuous Hamiltonian tuning rather than discrete quantum gates), but its hardware design also supports future expansion to digital gate-based operation.

• High Scalability: Neutral atom technology makes it easy to arrange a large number of qubits in space (Aquila has achieved 256 qubits, with experiments showing potential for thousands or even tens of thousands in the future), offering a path to large-scale quantum computing.

• Flexible Geometric Connectivity: By dynamically adjusting the relative positions of atoms in the array with optical tweezers, the graph of a problem to be solved (such as the Maximum Independent Set problem in graph theory) can be directly mapped onto the spatial geometry of the qubits, achieving intuitive and high-degree connectivity.

• Room Temperature Operation: Neutral atom qubits are naturally stable and can maintain their quantum state without large-scale deep-cryogenic equipment. The ability to operate at room temperature makes them easier to integrate with traditional data centers, reducing energy and maintenance costs.

• Fidelity Improvement: With technological advancements, the control precision of neutral atom quantum gates has significantly improved. The academic community has recently achieved high-fidelity two-qubit gates exceeding 99.5%, reaching the basic threshold required for quantum error correction and showing the rapid progress of the neutral atom route in error control.

Ref: https://www.quera.com/neutral-atom-platform

Field-Programmable Qubit Array (FPQA): The flexible arrangement of qubits enables reconfigurable layouts, which in turn leads to efficient circuits and significantly shortens development cycles. New applications requiring different configurations can be implemented without reassembling the hardware.

Given that lasers can be moved freely in space, neutral atoms can also be arranged in almost any configuration. This flexibility allows for the adjustment and adaptation of qubit connectivity to meet the specific requirements of each problem. Furthermore, this can greatly shorten development cycles, as new applications can leverage new configurations without needing to reassemble the hardware.

Qubit shuttling: By appropriately selecting atomic energy levels for qubit encoding, atoms can even be coherently moved during a computation. This is a key advantage of neutral atom technology.

Products / Services

• Quantum Systems: Neutral atom quantum computers, emphasizing scale and reconfigurable flexibility, supporting both cloud (e.g., on Amazon Braket) and on-premises deployment.

• Application Co-Design: Collaborating with industry clients to co-develop task-specific quantum solutions (e.g., in optimization, quantum machine learning, simulation).

• Collaborative Research: Partnering with academic, research, and technology partners (such as Harvard, MIT, AIST) to accelerate the R&D of key modules like error correction, algorithms, and control technology.

• Ecosystem Partnerships: The QuEra Quantum Alliance and Full-Stack algorithm co-design programs, promoting software-hardware integration and application deployment.

Partners

• Open Quantum Institute

• Quantum Machines

• Links Foundation

• QAI Ventures

• qBraid

• NERSC

• BP

• Amazon

• Deloitte

• Classiq

• Pawsey

• Wolfram Research

• Kipu Quantum

• QED-C

• NVIDIA

• Los Alamos

Parts of this article were generated and edited with the assistance of AI tools and reviewed by the author. Originally written in Chinese by the author, these articles are translated into English to invite cross-language resonance.