Hosted by: Women in Circuits in Collaboration with ISSCC 2025
Organizers: Huichu Liu (Meta) and Sally Amin (Apple)
Session Chair (Moderator): Maud Vinet (Quobly)
Details – February 18 (Tuesday), 8pm -10pm
What’s This Panel About?
Quantum computing is an exciting new area that uses principles from quantum mechanics to solve complex problems far faster than today’s computers. To make this possible, scientists and engineers are working with different types of “qubits”—the building blocks of quantum computers. Major players in the tech world are investing heavily in a few main types:
- Superconducting Qubits
- Trapped Ions
- Silicon Spin Qubits
Each of these approaches has its pros, cons, and a team of supporters, leading to a race to see which will come out on top. This panel will explore the unique features, strengths, and challenges of each qubit type.
Why You Should Attend
If you’re interested in where quantum computing is headed, this discussion is for you. Our experts will share insights on:
- The benefits and downsides of each type of qubit
- The technical challenges of building and scaling quantum computers
- How quantum computing could change what we think computers can do
- The trends and investments shaping the field
Who Should Come?
This panel is ideal for anyone curious about quantum computing, whether you’re a researcher, engineer, student, or professional looking to learn more about the future of this technology.
Join Us!
Don’t miss the chance to hear from leaders in the field as they discuss what it will take for quantum computing to reach its potential. It’s a unique opportunity to understand this fast-growing field and connect with others interested in shaping the future of computing.
Moderator: Maud Vinet
Affiliation – CEO, Quobly, Grenoble, France
As the CEO of Quobly, a France-based quantum startup founded in 2022, Dr. Maud Vinet is at the forefront of efforts to bring an operable quantum processor to the market rapidly. Previously, Maud Vinet led the quantum computing program at the world-renowned NRO – the CEA Leti. For 20 years, she ran technology transfer and development for the semiconductor industry. From 2013 to 2019, she managed the Advanced CMOS activities. From 2009 to 2013, she spent 4 years in Albany (NY, US) to develop Fully Depleted SOI within IBM Alliance together with STMicroelectronics.
The Speakers
Hanhee Paik
Topic – Superconducting qubits
Affiliation – Head of IBM Quantum Japan, and Senior Research Scientists
Hanhee Paik has been a quantum computing scientist for about 20 years. Her research career has been focused on understanding the coherence mechanisms of superconducting qubits and developing superconducting multi-qubit architectures. Dr. Paik pioneered the novel design of a superconducting qubit that helped the industry push the quality of quantum computing performance, greatly impacting the quantum computing community. Over the last few years, she has turned her focus to IBM Quantum’s efforts to develop the global quantum ecosystem. Especially, she has been working with major stakeholders in Japan and played a key role to establish the renewal of the partnership with the University of Tokyo with new 10-year quantum computational science collaboration plans, and the partnership with RIKEN. Starting 2024, she is leading the IBM Quantum team in Japan. Hanhee’s main mission is to work with team to drive science, technology, and business development to achieve quantum-centric supercomputing in Japan. She is the Head of IBM Quantum Japan. Dr. Paik was elected an American Physical Society Fellow in 2021 for pioneering a novel superconducting qubit architecture that catalyzed the commercialization of superconducting quantum computing, and contributing to the advancement quantum computing research in the industry.
Abstract
Key metrics for the performance of quantum computers are scale, quality, and speed. Superconducting qubits have shown the most balanced performance: at IBM, we have introduced our 1000-qubit system with the Condor processor and with various quantum communication links IBM has been developing. There is a good pathway laid out to realize “Blue Jay” with error correction that can run 1 billion gate operations with 1000+ qubits. The quality of superconducting qubits has been also steadily improving. Currently the individual superconducting qubits show a few milliseconds of coherence time. With new tunable coupler technology, two qubit operations can be done with minimal cross-talk to achieve less than 0.1% gate errors. Speed is where the superconducting qubits show its strength with nearly 1000 times naturally faster clock-speed than ions or atoms and its speed is also improving with the advancement of the control electronics. I would like to also emphasize the importance of the quantum software stack in the user point of view to be able to maximize the utility of quantum computing.
Shirin Montazeri
Topic – Control Electronics for Qubits
Affiliation – Senior Engineer and Researcher, Google
Shirin Montazeri received her Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, in 2018. During her PhD, she was a Research Assistant working on low-power LNAs, RF transceivers, device modeling, and MMIC designs for radio astronomy and quantum computers. She was a recipient of the 2016 Microwave Theory and Techniques Graduate Fellowship award and the 2019 Best PhD Dissertation award. In 2018, she joined Qualcomm Technologies where she worked on the next generations of 4G/5G transceiver chips. Currently, She is a researcher at Google Quantum AI team working on the RF/microwave integrated circuits and systems for control and readout of quantum computers. Shirin is also serving as the 2023-2025 vice-chair of the IEEE MTT-S Low Noise Techniques Technical Committee (TC-11), a member of the IEEE MTT-s Quantum Information Systems and Applications Committee (TC-30), a member of the IEEE Solid States Circuits Directions Committee, and was the co-chair of the Women in Microwave (WiM) Engineering committee at the 2023 International Microwave Symposium.
Abstract
Quantum computing has undergone significant advancements in recent decades, driven by research into diverse qubit technologies like trapped ions, superconducting qubits, and spin qubits, along with their associated electronics and microwave components. This research trajectory is projected to continue for several years before a dominant technology emerges. A key challenge in realizing fault-tolerant quantum computing lies in developing high-precision control electronics for qubit control and readout. While current progress leverages advancements in wireless communication electronics, achieving large-scale quantum computation necessitates control electronics capable of programming millions of qubits with high fidelity. This presents a significant opportunity for integrated circuit designers to contribute to this evolving field by developing novel solutions for scalable and precise qubit control.
Sophie Beyne
Topic – Silicon Spin Qubits
Affiliation – R&D Project Manager Quantum Computing – imec
Sofie Beyne studied materials science and engineering at KU Leuven (Belgium) and EPFL (Switzerland). She then joined imec as a PhD researcher, during which she developed a new test method to study reliability and failure mechanisms in advanced nano-interconnects. In 2019, she received her PhD in materials science and engineering from KU Leuven. After graduation, she started her career at Intel (Oregon, USA), working as an R&D reliability engineer on Intel’s advanced nodes in the Logic Technology Development department. Sofie re-joined imec in 2023, working as a project manager for quantum computing, focusing on bilateral projects around spin qubits.
Abstract
Real-world applications using quantum computing requires many connected qubits with high fidelity, long coherence times and good tunability. Semiconducting spin qubits are particularly interesting because of very long coherence times and high-fidelity control. Moreover, spin qubits have great scaling potential because they are small in size (~100nm) and their process compatibility with CMOS. Spin qubits use the spin of a single electron to encode quantum information; the spin up and down state form the 2-level basis of the qubit. A scalable qubit system demands a small qubit to qubit variability, which requires very uniform material properties. At imec, we have developed a stable 300mm process for silicon spin qubits with ultralow noise and high fidelities, by leveraging the advanced silicon fabrication technologies and state-of-the-art silicon process control. Further process and materials optimization, as well as new architectures and co-integration with cryo-CMOS will be required to achieve many, good, connected qubits.
Jeanette Roberts
Topic – Industry Perspective
Affiliation – QC Measurement Team lead, Intel
Jeanette Roberts is a Principal Engineer at Intel and leads the Quantum Computing measurement team in Oregon. The group is focused on characterizing and operating spin qubit devices in silicon; efforts include improving device quality, creating multi-qubit devices, using these to build Intel’s first quantum computers, and integrating devices with Intel’s cryogenic control chips. The qubit devices are manufactured in Intel’s 300 mm wafer fab. Jeanette joined Intel’s QC program when it was launched in 2015 with the goal of applying high-volume manufacturing techniques to fabricate qubit devices. Jeanette holds a Ph.D. in physics and has 30 years of experience in R&D at Intel in the areas of BEOL interconnects, lithography (157 nm, 193 nm, and EUV), wafer test, ALD/CVD, and Quantum Computing. She is the primary author on over 20 publications & presentations and has over 130 patents.
Abstract
Building a fault-tolerant quantum computer will likely require millions of physical qubits. While many qubit technologies exist, only spin qubits use transistor fabrication processes. Advanced semiconductor manufacturing makes classical devices with billions of transistors. At Intel, we employ that technology, and corresponding infrastructure, to make quantum computing devices based on spin qubits. Spin qubits in silicon are also promising owing to their long coherence times and small size. Moreover, error rates consistent with fault-tolerant operation have been demonstrated.