Intel Uses Extreme Cooling for Their "Cryoprober"

AlphaAtlas

[H]ard|Gawd
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However impressive your phase change or LN2 setup may be, it looks like Intel has you beat. According to a recent press release from the chip giant, Intel is making extensive use of extreme cooling in their Cryogenic Wafer Probe, a contraption designed to analyze quantum bits on 300mm wafers at least an order of magnitude faster than previous devices. Intel says that analyzing their quantum chips is "very different" than analyzing traditional chips from the same Oregon fab, as turn on characteristics must be measured "at low temperatures of less than a few kelvins above absolute zero." Intel didn't divulge many technical details about the cryoprober itself, and they would probably be way over my head anyway, but I'd imagine that this device uses liquid Helium to cool the wafers it analyzes, instead of the liquid Nitrogen you see in more "conventional" cryogenic devices like LN2 pots.

"Intel approached us more than a year ago, looking for a tool with the possibility to probe 300mm wafers at temperatures of only a few kelvins," said Dr. David Gunnarsson, Bluefors chief sales officer and principal scientist. "This was indeed a challenge, and to be able to take on a tool like this, we reached out to another Finnish company, Afore, which has long experience in specialized wafer probe systems. Together we came up with a design for a tool, the cryogenic wafer prober, which we now have constructed and assembled. We are looking forward in excitement to see the advances this tool will bring to the future of quantum computing..." In a first demonstration of the utility of the Cryogenic Wafer Prober, Intel measured the electrical turn-on characteristic for more than 100 qubit structures across a wafer fabricated at Intel's silicon qubit fabrication flow on its 300mm processing line in Oregon. The attached graphic illustrates the tool’s novel ability to collect high-volume cryogenic data and create a statistical correlation of the increase in turn-on voltage between room temperature and cryogenic temperature. With this tool, Intel will be able to speed feedback into the silicon spin qubit fabrication line and accelerate quantum computing research and development.
 
i thought there was a shortage of helium, and that some medical places where having difficulty getting if for thier mri and other scanners.
Shortage of dirt-cheap helium (the US something something stopped bothering to keep their stocks up and starting selling it off, but that was awhile ago), helium is the second most common element in the galaxy (wiki sez: On Earth it is relatively rare—5.2 ppm by volume in the atmosphere)
 
Cryoprober? Seriously?

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The 64 core Threadripper 3999XE will destroy not one, but two overclocked and chilled 28 core Intel Xeon W3175-X chips, while being cooled by a Noctua NH-U14S TR4-SP3 air cooler :ROFLMAO:

Yet I'm so glad that Intel still insists on this quantum computer PR BS... priorities man...

It's like Bon Swan picket up where Brian Krzanich left off..
 
i thought there was a shortage of helium, and that some medical places where having difficulty getting if for thier mri and other scanners.

The government created a unhealthy market. eventually capitalism will take over again and there wont be a shortage.
 
Shortage of dirt-cheap helium (the US something something stopped bothering to keep their stocks up and starting selling it off, but that was awhile ago), helium is the second most common element in the galaxy (wiki sez: On Earth it is relatively rare—5.2 ppm by volume in the atmosphere)

Helium on Earth is mostly produced via alpha decay of heavier elements in the Earth's crust and is largely extracted as a byproduct of natural gas harvesting. The market demand has really reached a saturation point. It will continue to be produced for eons but will most likely start to be referred to as a rare earth, not actually rare but produced in small quantities in many places.
 
i thought there was a shortage of helium, and that some medical places where having difficulty getting if for thier mri and other scanners.

We have a "national Helium reserve" stored in a salt dome down in Amarillo Texas. Originally aimed at keeping Airships filled, it become important as a hi-tech coolant.

problem with Helium is it's a "use it and lose it" gas, it's so light it escapes into space, and the only easy source is extracting it from natural gas wells. we still have plenty to extract, but once it's gone, it's gone forever. sort of like the gas it's coming from...
 
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