Description
Speaker:
Dr. Anthony “Tony” Ransford
Quantinuum
Abstract:
- Trapped-ion quantum processors provide a leading platform for quantum computation due to their high-fidelity operations and reconfigurable connectivity. Scaling system size while maintaining uniform performance, however, remains a central challenge for realizing fault-tolerant quantum computation. We present Helios, a 98-qubit trapped-ion quantum computer based on an advanced quantum charge-coupled device (QCCD) architecture designed to combine novel ion transport with high-precision quantum control.
- Helios utilizes hyperfine qubits encoded in 137Ba+ ions and integrates multiple quantum operation regions connected through a junction transport network and rotatable storage ring, enabling flexible ion rearrangement and all-to-all connectivity.
- System characterization demonstrates average single-qubit gate fidelity of 2.5(1)×10−5, two-qubit gate fidelity of 7.9(2)×10−4 ,and state-preparation-and-measurement (SPAM) error of 7.9(2)×10−4, maintained across operational zones. These performance levels support deep circuit execution together with mid-circuit measurement and feedforward required for quantum error correction.
- Beyond the component level benchmarks, system level benchmarks including mirror benchmarking, binary randomized benchmarking and random circuit sampling are characterized. We show that simulating the results of the random circuit sampling is far beyond the ability of modern supercomputers.
- These results demonstrate that the QCCD approach enables simultaneous scaling of qubit number and operational fidelity, establishing a practical pathway toward large-scale fault-tolerant quantum computing with trapped ions.
Speaker Bio:
Dr. Anthony “Tony” Ransford is the lead architect of Helios, responsible for leading the team that brought the world's most powerful quantum computer to life. Dr. Ransford’s work spans the full stack of quantum hardware design and integration, driving the development of our scalable system architecture through ever increasing heights in fidelity. Dr. Ransford has seen Quantinuum’s journey through 4 QPUs, from our first commercial system with just 4 qubits through our latest design Helios. His leadership has directly contributed to Quantinuum’s leadership in fidelity and computational power and now is leading the archicture of Lumos, a future 1M qubit system at Quantinuum. Prior to joining Quantinuum, Dr. Ransford earned his PHD at U.C.L.A, focusing on high fidelity qubit manipulation.