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29 July 2026 How silicon-chip technology is being re-engineered for quantum computing Two demonstrations of silicon-based quantum processors tackle the engineering challenges of building scalable quantum computers. By Natalia Ares ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2588-6322 0 Natalia Ares Natalia Ares is in the Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PJ, UK. View author publications PubMed Google Scholar
Decades of development in semiconductor technology mean that conventional computers now contain billions of transistors, packed onto tiny silicon chips. Silicon transistors are cheap, fast and reliable, and there is considerable interest in applying this technology to quantum computers. A quantum computer based on silicon microchips could in theory perform, in hours, complex calculations that would take today’s best classical (non-quantum) computers longer than the lifetime of the Universe. Now, two papers in Nature take on the challenge of connecting and controlling ‘quantum transistors’ in silicon quantum processors. Undseth et al.1 report a quantum processor with reconfigurable long-range connectivity, whereas the HRL team2 describes a processing unit controlled by electronics that operate at cryogenic temperatures, close to the temperature of the quantum processor itself.
Nature 655, 1141-1142 (2026)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-02124-0
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Competing Interests The author declares no competing interests.
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