Quantum computing is an area of technology that you can expect to hear a lot more of in the next 10 years. The whole industry is immensely complicated, but major developments are accelerating, at least in the case of the only ASX-listed quantum semiconductor company Archer Materials (ASX: AXE).

For the first time, Archer has managed to use some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world to obtain realistic and efficient simulations of its proprietary ¹²CQ qubit material.

If you don’t know what a ‘qubit’ is – don’t stress. A regular ‘bit’ is a basic unit of information that must be either in the state of ‘1’ or ‘0’. Qubits on the other hand, allow for information to be represented as both 0 and 1 simultaneously in what is referred to as a ‘superposition’.

Because of the complex structure of Archers ¹²CQ qubit material, enormous computing power is needed in order to use predictive modelling and generate realistic simulations of what it is capable of. Such complex simulations are impossible with standard computing power. That’s why they’ve partnered with world leading theoretical physicists and supercomputers of the prestigious research institute École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), in Switzerland to model their material.

“Archer’s development strength has advanced to a stage that calls for high-power computing facilities, and draws on the few people and institutions in the world that can perform this type of work.” said Archer CEO, Dr Mohammad Choucair.

“Supercomputers are powerful tools, and with them, Archer and colleagues at EPFL have run important simulations on the ¹²CQ qubit material more realistically and more efficiently than ever before, which would never be possible with theory and experimentation alone.

“The simulations will be used to support the design and development of the more complex quantum devices required for the future operation of the ¹²CQ chip technology.”

The supercomputer models increased the simulation capacity of the material system 10x more than previous modelling performed by Archer and EPFL. With the outcomes of the simulations to be used for fast tracking the development of Archer’s more advanced quantum electronic devices required for ¹²CQ chip operation.

The breakthrough for their qubit material comes just one week after another tech milstone, from their proprietary biochip, which successfully integrated robots and wettable electronics that will allow it to detect some of the world’s most deadly transmittable diseases.

It might be some time before you have a quantum computing device in your pocket. However, at the rate Archer’s team are achieving what was not previously thought possible and their strong cash balance for development runway, they are well positioned to be a key player in getting us there.