China News Agency learned from Anhui Quantum Computing Engineering Research Center that China’s first high-vacuum storage box for quantum chips has been successfully developed and has been put into use. Researchers vividly call it a “quantum chip refrigerator”.
According to Jia Zhilong, deputy director of the Quantum Computing Engineering Research Center in Anhui Province, the quantum chip high-vacuum storage box has three storage chambers, each of which can be operated independently.
In addition, it is also equipped with an intelligent monitoring system, which can monitor the vacuum degree in real-time and provide a stable high-vacuum environment for the chip storage process; the research and development personnel have also developed a human-computer interaction interface so that the equipment can be fully automated.
Jia Zhilong pointed out that the superconducting material in the quantum chip is very sensitive to the environment. If the environment is not qualified during the production and storage process, it will chemically react with oxygen and water molecules in the air and adsorb various impurities.
In this way, key components of quantum chips such as Josephson junctions and superconducting capacitors will age, resulting in poor frequency consistency of qubits, shortening the coherence time of quantum chips, and ultimately affecting the performance of quantum chips. Just like food will oxidize and deteriorate after being exposed to the air, if the quantum chip is not properly preserved, it will also fail because it is “not fresh”.
