Patents Assigned to D-Wave Systems, Inc.
  • Patent number: 10275422
    Abstract: Methods and systems represent constraint as an Ising model penalty function and a penalty gap associated therewith, the penalty gap separating a set of feasible solutions to the constraint from a set of infeasible solutions to the constraint; and determines the Ising model penalty function subject to the bounds on the programmable parameters imposed by the hardware limitations of the second processor, where the penalty gap exceeds a predetermined threshold greater than zero. Such may be employed to find quantum binary optimization problems and associated gap values employing a variety of techniques.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 30, 2019
    Assignee: D-WAVE SYSTEMS, INC.
    Inventors: Robert Israel, William G. Macready, Zhengbing Bian, Fabian Chudak, Mani Ranjbar
  • Patent number: 10268622
    Abstract: Topologies for analog computing systems are provided. Qubits in the topology are grouped into cells, and cells are coupled to adjacent cells by inter-cell couplers. At least some cells are coupled to non-adjacent cells via long-range couplers. Long-range couplers may be arranged into coverings so that certain sets of qubits within a covering region may be coupled with a reduced number of couplers. Each cell within a covering region without a long-range coupler may be proximate to a cell with a long range coupler so that each cell within the covering region is no more than a certain coupling distance away from a long-range coupler. Long-range couplers may couple over a greater physical distance than inter-cell couplers. Long-range couplers may couple to qubits over a larger coupling region, and may extend across multiple crossing regions between qubits.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2019
    Assignee: D-WAVE SYSTEMS INC.
    Inventors: Jeremy P. Hilton, Aidan Patrick Roy, Paul I. Bunyk, Andrew Douglas King, Kelly T. R. Boothby, Richard G. Harris, Chunqing Deng
  • Patent number: 10140248
    Abstract: Analog processors for solving various computational problems are provided. Such analog processors comprise a plurality of quantum devices, arranged in a lattice, together with a plurality of coupling devices. Such quantum processors further comprise a set of readout devices each configured to measure the information from a corresponding quantum device in the plurality of quantum devices. A method of determining a result of a computational problem using an analog processor includes receiving at a first digital computer, including a digital processor, an instance of the computational problem defined over an input graph, wherein the input graph is non-planar; and determining a mapping of the instance of the computational problem onto the analog processor, by the digital processor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2018
    Assignee: D-WAVE SYSTEMS INC.
    Inventors: Alexander Maassen van den Brink, Peter Love, Mohammad H. S. Amin, Geordie Rose, David Grant, Miles F. H. Steininger, Paul I. Bunyk, Andrew J. Berkley
  • Patent number: 10097151
    Abstract: Systems and devices for providing differential input/output communication with a superconducting device are described. Each differential I/O communication is electrically filtered using a respective tubular filter structure incorporating superconducting lumped element devices and high frequency dissipation by metal powder epoxy. A plurality of such tubular filter structures is arranged in a cryogenic, multi-tiered assembly further including structural/thermalization supports and a device sample holder assembly for securing a device sample, for example a superconducting quantum processor. The interface between the cryogenic tubular filter assembly and room temperature electronics is achieved using hermetically sealed vacuum feed-through structures designed to receive flexible printed circuit board cable.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 9, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 9, 2018
    Assignee: D-Wave Systems Inc.
    Inventors: Murray C. Thom, Alexander M. Tcaciuc, Gordon Lamont, J. Craig Petroff, Richard D. Neufeld, David S. Bruce, Sergey V. Uchaykin
  • Patent number: 10068180
    Abstract: Systems and methods for employing macroscopic resonant tunneling operations in quantum processors are described. New modes of use for quantum processor architectures employ probe qubits to determine energy eigenvalues of a problem Hamiltonian through macroscopic resonant tunneling operations. A dedicated probe qubit design that may be added to quantum processor architectures is also described. The dedicated probe qubit enables improved performance of macroscopic resonant tunneling operations and, consequently, improved performance of the new modes of use described.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 22, 2013
    Date of Patent: September 4, 2018
    Assignee: D-Wave Systems Inc.
    Inventors: Mohammad H. S. Amin, Andrew J. Berkley, Richard G. Harris, Trevor Michael Lanting, Anatoly Yu Smirnov
  • Patent number: 10037493
    Abstract: A quantum processor is operable as a universal adiabatic quantum computing system. The quantum processor includes physical qubits, with at least a first and second communicative coupling available between pairs of qubits via an in-situ tunable superconducting capacitive coupler and an in-situ tunable superconducting inductive coupler, respectively. Tunable couplers provide diagonal and off-diagonal coupling. Compound Josephson junctions (CJJs) of the tunable couplers are responsive to a flux bias to tune a sign and magnitude of a sum of a capacitance of a fixed capacitor and a tunable capacitance which is mediated across a pair of coupling capacitors. The qubits may be hybrid qubits, operable in a flux regime or a charge regime. Qubits may include a pair of CJJs that interrupt a loop of material and which are separated by an island of superconducting material which is voltage biased with respect to a qubit body.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 21, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 31, 2018
    Assignee: D-Wave Systems Inc.
    Inventors: Richard G. Harris, Mohammad H. S. Amin, Anatoly Smirnov
  • Patent number: 10031887
    Abstract: Techniques for improving the performance of a quantum processor are described. The techniques include reading out a fraction of the qubits in a quantum processor and utilizing one or more post-processing operations to reconstruct qubits of the quantum processor that are not read. The reconstructed qubits may be determined using a perfect sampler to provide results that are strictly better than reading all of the qubits directly from the quantum processor. The composite sample that includes read qubits and reconstructed qubits may be obtained faster than if all qubits of the quantum processor are read directly.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 3, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 24, 2018
    Assignee: D-WAVE SYSTEMS INC.
    Inventor: Jack Raymond
  • Patent number: 10002107
    Abstract: Systems, devices, articles, methods, and techniques for advancing quantum computing by removing unwanted interactions in one or more quantum processor. One approach includes creating an updated plurality of programmable parameters based at least in part on a received value for the characteristic magnetic susceptibility of the qubit in the at least one quantum processor, and returning the updated plurality of programmable parameters. Examples programmable parameters include local biases, and coupling values characterizing the problem Hamilton.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 10, 2015
    Date of Patent: June 19, 2018
    Assignee: D-Wave Systems Inc.
    Inventor: Trevor Michael Lanting
  • Patent number: 9984333
    Abstract: Devices, methods and articles advantageously allow communications between qubits to provide an architecture for universal adiabatic quantum computation. The architecture includes a first coupled basis A1B1 and a second coupled basis A2B2 that does not commute with the first basis A1B1.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 2015
    Date of Patent: May 29, 2018
    Assignee: D-Wave Systems Inc.
    Inventors: Jacob Daniel Biamonte, Andrew J. Berkley, Mohammad H.S. Amin
  • Patent number: 9978809
    Abstract: Various techniques and apparatus permit fabrication of superconductive circuits and structures, for instance Josephson junctions, which may, for example be useful in quantum computers. For instance, a low magnetic flux noise trilayer structure may be fabricated having a dielectric structure or layer interposed between two elements or layers capable of superconducting. A superconducting via may directly overlie a Josephson junction. A structure, for instance a Josephson junction, may be carried on a planarized dielectric layer. A fin may be employed to remove heat from the structure. A via capable of superconducting may have a width that is less than about 1 micrometer. The structure may be coupled to a resistor, for example by vias and/or a strap connector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 10, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 22, 2018
    Assignee: D-Wave Systems Inc.
    Inventors: Eric Ladizinsky, Geordie Rose, Jeremy P. Hilton, Eugene Dantsker, Byong Hyop Oh
  • Patent number: 9881256
    Abstract: Computational systems implement problem solving using heuristic solvers or optimizers. Such may iteratively evaluate a result of processing, and modify the problem or representation thereof before repeating processing on the modified problem, until a termination condition is reached. Heuristic solvers or optimizers may execute on one or more digital processors and/or one or more quantum processors. The system may autonomously select between types of hardware devices and/or types of heuristic optimization algorithms. Such may coordinate or at least partially overlap post-processing operations with processing operations, for instance performing post-processing on an ith batch of samples while generating an (i+1)th batch of samples, e.g., so post-processing operation on the ith batch of samples does not extend in time beyond the generation of the (i+1)th batch of samples. Heuristic optimizers selection is based on pre-processing assessment of the problem, e.g.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 21, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2018
    Assignee: D-WAVE SYSTEMS INC.
    Inventors: Firas Hamze, Andrew Douglas King, Jack Raymond, Aidan Patrick Roy, Robert Israel, Evgeny Andriyash, Catherine McGeoch, Mani Ranjbar
  • Patent number: 9875215
    Abstract: Systems and methods formulate problems for solving by a quantum processor using hardware graph decomposition. A decomposition of a primal graph may be built in a first stage based on a hardware specific graph, and refined in a second stage by, for example, removing vertices from the decomposition. The hardware specific graph may be a graph that is specific to a piece of hardware, for instance a quantum processor comprising a plurality of qubits and couplers operable to communicatively couple pairs of qubits.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 23, 2018
    Assignee: D-Wave Systems Inc.
    Inventors: William Macready, Aidan Patrick Roy
  • Patent number: 9875444
    Abstract: A problem graph having one or more odd cycles is embedded in a quantum processor. The quantum processor includes a plurality of qubits and coupling devices, each coupling device operable to provide controllable communicative coupling between a respective pair of the plurality of qubits to form an interconnected topology. Embedding may, for example, be realized by mapping each vertex of the problem graph to a respective single qubit; mapping each edge of the problem graph to a respective single coupling device, where for pairs of qubits, each qubit of the pair is mapped to a respective pair of vertices. The problem graph may include one or more sub-graphs, one or more of the sub-graphs being a bipartite K3,3 graph.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 2016
    Date of Patent: January 23, 2018
    Assignee: D-Wave Systems Inc.
    Inventor: Andrew Douglas King
  • Patent number: 9870277
    Abstract: The effects of decoherence and/or noise in adiabatic quantum computation and quantum annealing are reduced by implementing replica coding schemes. Multiple instances of the same problem are mapped to respective subsets of the qubits and coupling devices of a quantum processor. The multiple instances are evolved simultaneously in the presence of coupling between the qubits of different instances. Quantum processor architectures that are adapted to facilitate replica coding are also described.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 5, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 16, 2018
    Assignee: D-Wave Systems Inc.
    Inventor: Andrew J. Berkley
  • Patent number: 9865648
    Abstract: Superconductive interconnection structures providing continuous, uninterrupted superconducting signal paths between a superconducting chip and a superconducting chip carrier are described. The superconductive interconnection structures employ superconducting solder bumps and pillars of Under Bump Metal (“UBM”). The superconductive interconnection structures are employed in a two-stage solder bumping process in which the superconducting chip is first bonded to a testing module for screening and then bonded to a chip packaging module for operation. Either the testing module or the chip packaging module, or both, may include a multi-chip module for carrying multiple superconducting chips simultaneously.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 9, 2018
    Assignee: D-WAVE SYSTEMS INC.
    Inventor: Paul I. Bunyk
  • Patent number: 9779360
    Abstract: A system may include first and second qubits that cross one another and a first coupler having a perimeter that encompasses at least a part of the portions of the first and second qubits, the first coupler being operable to ferromagnetically or anti-ferromagnetically couple the first and the second qubits together. A multi-layered computer chip may include a first plurality N of qubits laid out in a first metal layer, a second plurality M of qubits laid out at least partially in a second metal layer that cross each of the qubits of the first plurality of qubits, and a first plurality N times M of coupling devices that at least partially encompasses an area where a respective pair of the qubits from the first and the second plurality of qubits cross each other.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2017
    Assignee: D-WAVE SYSTEMS INC.
    Inventors: Paul Bunyk, Felix Maibaum
  • Patent number: 9768371
    Abstract: Various techniques and apparatus permit fabrication of superconductive circuits. A niobium/aluminum oxide/niobium trilayer may be formed and individual Josephson Junctions (JJs) formed. A protective cap may protect a JJ during fabrication. A hybrid dielectric may be formed. A superconductive integrated circuit may be formed using a subtractive patterning and/or additive patterning. A superconducting metal layer may be deposited by electroplating and/or polished by chemical-mechanical planarization. The thickness of an inner layer dielectric may be controlled by a deposition process. A substrate may include a base of silicon and top layer including aluminum oxide. Depositing of superconducting metal layer may be stopped or paused to allow cooling before completion. Multiple layers may be aligned by patterning an alignment marker in a superconducting metal layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 7, 2013
    Date of Patent: September 19, 2017
    Assignee: D-Wave Systems Inc.
    Inventors: Eric Ladizinsky, Jeremy P. Hilton, Byong Hyop Oh, Paul I. Bunyk
  • Patent number: 9762200
    Abstract: Systems and devices for providing differential input/output communication with a superconducting device are described. Each differential I/O communication is electrically filtered using a respective tubular filter structure incorporating superconducting lumped element devices and high frequency dissipation by metal powder epoxy. A plurality of such tubular filter structures is arranged in a cryogenic, multi-tiered assembly further including structural/thermalization supports and a device sample holder assembly for securing a device sample, for example a superconducting quantum processor. The interface between the cryogenic tubular filter assembly and room temperature electronics is achieved using hermetically sealed vacuum feed-through structures designed to receive flexible printed circuit board cable.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 4, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 12, 2017
    Assignee: D-Wave Systems Inc.
    Inventors: Murray C. Thom, Alexander M. Tcaciuc
  • Patent number: 9727824
    Abstract: Systems, methods and aspects, and embodiments thereof relate to unsupervised or semi-supervised features learning using a quantum processor. To achieve unsupervised or semi-supervised features learning, the quantum processor is programmed to achieve Hierarchal Deep Learning (referred to as HDL) over one or more data sets. Systems and methods search for, parse, and detect maximally repeating patterns in one or more data sets or across data or data sets. Embodiments and aspects regard using sparse coding to detect maximally repeating patterns in or across data. Examples of sparse coding include L0 and L1 sparse coding. Some implementations may involve appending, incorporating or attaching labels to dictionary elements, or constituent elements of one or more dictionaries. There may be a logical association between label and the element labeled such that the process of unsupervised or semi-supervised feature learning spans both the elements and the incorporated, attached or appended label.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2017
    Assignee: D-Wave Systems Inc.
    Inventors: Geordie Rose, Suzanne Gildert, William G. Macready, Dominic Christoph Walliman
  • Patent number: 9727527
    Abstract: Analog processors for solving various computational problems are provided. Such analog processors comprise a plurality of quantum devices, arranged in a lattice, together with a plurality of coupling devices. The analog processors further comprise bias control systems each configured to apply a local effective bias on a corresponding quantum device. A set of coupling devices in the plurality of coupling devices is configured to couple nearest-neighbor quantum devices in the lattice. Another set of coupling devices is configured to couple next-nearest neighbor quantum devices. The analog processors further comprise a plurality of coupling control systems each configured to tune the coupling value of a corresponding coupling device in the plurality of coupling devices to a coupling. Such quantum processors further comprise a set of readout devices each configured to measure the information from a corresponding quantum device in the plurality of quantum devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 1, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2017
    Assignee: D-Wave Systems Inc.
    Inventors: Alexander Maassen van den Brink, Peter Love, Mohammad H. S. Amin, Geordie Rose, David Grant, Miles F. H. Steininger, Paul I. Bunyk, Andrew J. Berkley