Patents Assigned to D-Wave Systems, Inc.
  • Patent number: 10326071
    Abstract: Systems and methods for magnetic shielding are described. A magnetic shield formed of a material having a high magnetic permeability may be degaussed using a toroidal degaussing coil. The toroidal degaussing coil may enclose at least a portion of the shield. Magnetic field gradients may be actively compensated using multiple magnetic field sensors and local compensation coils. Trapped fluxons may be removed by an application of Lorentz force wherein an electrical current is passed through a superconducting plane.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 2016
    Date of Patent: June 18, 2019
    Assignee: D-Wave Systems Inc.
    Inventor: Sergey V. Uchaykin
  • 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 9727823
    Abstract: Achieving orthogonal control of non-orthogonal qubit parameters of a logical qubit allows for increasing the length of a qubit chain thereby increasing the effective connectivity of the qubit chain. A hybrid qubit is formed by communicatively coupling a dedicated second qubit to a first qubit. By tuning a programmable parameter of the second qubit of a hybrid qubit, an effective programmable parameter of the hybrid qubit is adjusted without affecting another effective programmable parameter of the hybrid qubit thereby achieving orthogonal control of otherwise non-orthogonal qubit parameters. The length of the logical qubit may thus be increased by communicatively coupling a plurality of such hybrid qubits together.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 23, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2017
    Assignee: D-Wave Systems Inc.
    Inventors: Mohammad H. S. Amin, Trevor Michael Lanting, Colin Enderud
  • 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
  • Patent number: 9710758
    Abstract: In a quantum processor some couplers couple a given qubit to a nearest neighbor qubit (e.g., vertically and horizontally in an ordered 2D array), other couplers couple to next-nearest neighbor qubits (e.g., diagonally in the ordered 2D array). Couplers may include half-couplers, to selectively provide communicative coupling between a given qubit and other qubits, which may or may not be nearest or even next-nearest-neighbors. Tunable couplers selective mediate communicative coupling. A control system may impose a connectivity on a quantum processor, different than an “as designed” or “as manufactured” physical connectivity. Imposition may be via a digital processor processing a working or updated working graph, to map or embed a problem graph. A set of exclude qubits may be created from a comparison of hardware and working graphs. An annealing schedule may adjust a respective normalized inductance of one or more qubits, for instance to exclude certain qubits.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 20, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 18, 2017
    Assignee: D-Wave Systems Inc.
    Inventors: Paul I. Bunyk, Mohammad H. S. Amin, Richard G. Harris, Trevor Michael Lanting, Mark W. Johnson, Jeremy P. Hilton, Emile M. Hoskinson
  • Patent number: 9699266
    Abstract: A computer system employs a network that between a data programming system and one or more superconducting programmable devices of a superconducting processor chip. Routers on the network, such as first-, second- and third-stage routers direct communications with the superconducting programmable devices. A superconducting memory register may load data signals received from a first-stage router into corresponding superconducting programmable devices. The system may employ additional superconducting chips, first-, second- or third-stage routers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 4, 2017
    Assignee: D-Wave System Inc.
    Inventors: Geordie Rose, Paul I. Bunyk
  • Patent number: 9665539
    Abstract: Solving computational problems may include generating a logic circuit representation of the computational problem, encoding the logic circuit representation as a discrete optimization problem, and solving the discrete optimization problem using a quantum processor. Output(s) of the logic circuit representation may be clamped such that the solving involves effectively executing the logic circuit representation in reverse to determine input(s) that corresponds to the clamped output(s). The representation may be of a Boolean logic circuit. The discrete optimization problem may be composed of a set of miniature optimization problems, where each miniature optimization problem encodes a respective logic gate from the logic circuit representation. A quantum processor may include multiple sets of qubits, each set coupled to respective annealing signal lines such that dynamic evolution of each set of qubits is controlled independently from the dynamic evolutions of the other sets of qubits.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 30, 2017
    Assignee: D-Wave Systems Inc.
    Inventors: William G. Macready, Geordie Rose, Thomas F.W. Mahon, Peter Love, Marshall Drew-Brook
  • Patent number: 9634224
    Abstract: In one aspect, fabricating a superconductive integrated circuit with a Josephson junction includes applying oxygen or nitrogen to at least part of a structure formed from an outer superconductive layer to passivate an artifact, if any, left from removing the portion of the outer superconductive layer. In another aspect, a first superconductive layer is deposited, a second superconductive layer is deposited on the first superconductive layer, an oxide layer is formed on the first superconductive layer, a dielectric layer is deposited on the oxide layer, a portion of the dielectric layer is removed, a first portion of the oxide layer is removed, a second oxide portion is formed in place of the first portion of the oxide layer, and a third superconductive layer is deposited on the dielectric layer and the second oxide portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 20, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 25, 2017
    Assignee: D-Wave Systems Inc.
    Inventors: Eric Ladizinsky, Nicolas Ladizinsky, Jason Yao, Byong Hyop Oh, Richard David Neufeld
  • Patent number: 9607270
    Abstract: Apparatus and methods enable active compensation for unwanted discrepancies in the superconducting elements of a quantum processor. A qubit may include a primary compound Josephson junction (CJJ) structure, which may include at least a first secondary CJJ structure to enable compensation for Josephson junction asymmetry in the primary CJJ structure. A qubit may include a series LC-circuit coupled in parallel with a first CJJ structure to provide a tunable capacitance. A qubit control system may include means for tuning inductance of a qubit loop, for instance a tunable coupler inductively coupled to the qubit loop and controlled by a programming interface, or a CJJ structure coupled in series with the qubit loop and controlled by a programming interface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 28, 2017
    Assignee: D-Wave Systems Inc.
    Inventors: Richard G. Harris, Andrew J. Berkley, Jan Johansson, Mark Johnson, Mohammad Amin, Paul I. Bunyk