Everything is fair in love and war, even semiconductors… especially semiconductors.
The second largest industry in the world after finance, semiconductors are the new faster, cheaper and more efficient brains of modern technology, including your smartphones and laptops. Your iPhone is powered by a semiconductor chip as is your microwave. Though minuscule in size, they pack a punch when it comes to processing power. As the world becomes increasingly reliant on electronic devices, semiconductors have the potential to cause global economic rifts. In fact, they already have, if you consider the relationships between global powers today.
Quantum computing chips can be considered the next-generation, powerful offspring of semiconductors. They are advanced semiconductors, but are still in the early stages of development. Only a handful of companies around the world, like IBM and Google, have the resources and knowledge to produce and commercialise these chips. Australia is home to one of the few companies developing a quantum chip: Archer Materials (ASX: AXE).
Archer Materials is led by CEO Mohammad Choucair. In 2010, Choucair obtained his PhD from the University of New South Wales, to file alongside his Nanotechnology and Management degrees, and in the following year, he received the Royal Australian Chemical Institute Cornforth Medal for the most outstanding Chemistry PhD in Australia. In December 2017, he was appointed CEO of Archer Materials. Given his technical background in turning atoms into useful devices, he has been at the forefront of producing innovative materials technology with exceptional potential for commercialisation, which is what he does at Archer.
Archer is currently developing two chips: the 12CQ qubit processor to enable more practical quantum computing, and a lesser known biochip to speed up and digitise disease detection. The 12CQ chip comprises a material for storing and processing qubits, ‘quantum bits’. The processing of qubits could provide significantly faster computation than traditional computers and even supercomputers. These powerful quantum machines could find applications in our everyday lives, but they are still in the early stages of development.
For instance, there are use cases investigated by hundreds of companies around the world, ranging from banks to automotive manufacturers, spanning trading to electrical vehicle battery optimisation. Then there is advancing the case of artificial intelligence, a field which is advancing rapidly to a point where you may wonder if a chat bot could write this article to convince you that AI is not a threat.
With its 12CQ qubit processor chip, Archer would be able to support room temperature quantum computing onboard mobile devices. Otherwise you are left to access these quantum computers via the cloud, or if you have an insane amount of money, buy one. But then, where to house it? With room temperature-enabled qubit processors, the average consumer would be able to own and use the device, minus the room-sized fridges, lasers, and other equipment straight out of a Bond film.
Archer’s 12CQ qubit chip has already been granted patents from Australia, the US, China, South Korea, Japan, and a further dozen countries in Europe, including the UK, France, and Germany, to protect a global competitive advantage.
According to Choucair, Archer is in a league of its own with its qubit processor. While most companies are focused on the applications of quantum computers, Archer has its sights on making the technology accessible and practical. Archer is building tech that no one else has. It’s a world first. That’s why Choucair is not worried about the tech giants with a foot in the quantum computing door. He says, “It’s not a traditional competition, because not all quantum computing technology is the same, they are bespoke, which is unlike modern technology that is largely built using silicon chips in semiconductor fabs. Your phone has its uses and supercomputers have their uses, and so too quantum computing devices and machines are expected to vary in use. But importantly, for now, on Archer’s commercialisation pathway, the patents got through some of the biggest economies including the US, Europe, and China, and we have already started to work with tier-one semiconductor foundries on qubit integration.”
This is an exciting development in an industry that is still in its infancy. The existing technologies mostly don’t lend themselves to downstream industrial production, which is a commercial reality check. Currently, the greatest value capture potential rests in the research and development of the qubit chips. It plays right into Australia’s strengths where we have world-leading quantum R&D. Apart from the folks at Archer, there are plenty of Aussie’s at the forefront of quantum computing around the world.
Great innovation by gifted people is involved in developing Archer’s 12CQ qubit processor. Potentially, their pioneering work, together with the work of those in the growing global quantum economy, could transform your lives as you know them.
Alinda is a Business Reporter for The Sentiment
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