Archer Materials Limited provided shareholders with a technical progress update on Archer's 12CQ quantum computing chip technology ("12CQ chip"). The Company for the first time has detected quantum information in the 12CQ qubit material on-chip and at room temperature using mobile phone compatible technology. Archer and teams from EPFL have now used a single-chip integrated electron spin resonance ("ESR") detector based on a high electron mobility transistor ("HEMT") technology to detect and characterise the as-prepared 12CQ qubit material in a controlled atmosphere at room temperature.

The signal characteristics obtained agreed with the well-studied, repeatable, and scientifically published results obtained from room temperature measurements performed on macroscopic (`bulk') quantities of the qubit material using continuous wave ESR instruments. The unoptimised ESR chip devices were of sufficient sensitivity to detect the electron spin in a few picolitres (picolitre is a trillionth of a litre) of qubit material at room temperature. The quantum information in the qubit material is in the form of an electron's `spin' states.

The quantum states were found to be sufficiently well preserved when operating in an on-chip environment. By demonstrating the detection of electron spin quantum states using a single chip ESR detector based on HEMT, the technology paves the way for the implementation of the complex qubit control characteristics required in quantum circuits. Archer and collaborators from EPFL have used high electron mobility transistor ("HEMT") technology to detect and characterise the as-prepared 12CQ qubit material in a controlled atmosphere at room temperature.

The single-chip resonator was developed at EPFL, and manufactured by semiconductor company OMMIC using existing foundry processes and facilities, near Paris, France. HEMT devices are widely used in integrated circuits, for example in mobile phones, and are well-known in the semiconductor industry due to their low power consumption (the HEMT based ESR detector chip device referred to in this Announcement consumed approximately 90 µW of power at room temperature operation). The HEMT technology was initially utilised for the ESR chip in part to confirm the advantages of low power consumption offered by a HEMT for the qubit measurements, and the chip having simplified integrated electronics to a single transistor.

Archer previously showed 12CQ single qubit compatibility by integrating with silicon substrates and intends to consider silicon CMOS based ESR detectors in future development. In collaboration with EPFL, the Company for the first time has detected quantum states§ in the 12 CQ qubit material on-chip and at room temperature using mobile phone compatible technology. The coherent control of quantum information in qubit materials is the fundamental requirement for quantum logic operations that are the basis of any quantum computing qubit processor hardware.

For potential development and use of Archer's qubit materials in practical quantum processor chip devices, it is significant to demonstrate the room temperature detection of quantum information using mobile-compatible device technology. The scientific breakthrough made in 2016 to realise Archer's 12CQ qubit material demonstrated the detection and manipulation of the electron spin quantum state and the deliberate and coherent electron spin rotations in a bulk quantity of the qubit material. This was direct proof validating the potential usability of the qubit material for quantum information processing applications.

However, the miniaturisation of qubit materials and integration with appropriate quantum control electronics using semiconductor components to realise on-chip QIP devices is a significant challenge.