New Research Award: Rigetti wins $5.48M Air Force grant to advance ABAA chip technology.
Consortium Collaboration: Iowa State, RMIT, UConn, and LLNL join to study defect reduction.
Quantum Scalability: ABAA addresses material defects to support scalable superconducting qubit systems.
Rigetti Computing, Inc. (Nasdaq: RGTI) announced it has been awarded a $5.48 million Air Force Office of Scientific Research grant. The funding supports the advancement of the Alternating-Bias Assisted Annealing (ABAA) process to improve superconducting qubit fabrication.
Partnering with Iowa State University, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, University of Connecticut, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Rigetti leads a consortium focused on understanding how ABAA reduces microscopic defects in quantum chips. This collaboration will address one of the core challenges in scaling quantum computers: material imperfections in superconducting qubits.
"This project gives us access to the resources and expertise to unlock the full potential of ABAA and gain a foundational understanding of defects in superconducting qubits."
— Dr. Subodh Kulkarni, CEO, Rigetti Computing
ABAA technology introduces alternating low-voltage pulses at room temperature to the oxide barrier of Josephson junctions, setting qubit frequencies precisely before packaging. Unlike laser trimming techniques, ABAA offers a scalable and simple solution, improving the fidelity of two-qubit gates while reducing production complexity.
Rigetti’s ABAA-fabricated devices have demonstrated a reduction in two-level systems (TLSs)—defects that interfere with qubit energy stability and coherence. Gaining deeper insights into ABAA’s effects on TLSs could enable further advancements in quantum hardware reliability and scalability, particularly for superconducting quantum computers.
“We already know that superconducting qubits have advantages in speed and scalability. Deepening our knowledge of superconducting qubit defects puts us in an even better position to scale our systems with improved performance."
— Dr. Subodh Kulkarni, CEO, Rigetti Computing
Rigetti’s new award also complements its selection for DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative, aimed at evaluating approaches capable of achieving utility-scale quantum computing by 2033.
Rigetti operates Fab-1, the industry’s first dedicated quantum device fabrication facility, supporting the company’s leadership in full-stack quantum computing solutions for cloud and on-premises deployments.
