Krypton gas emerges as a new ingredient for quantum computing

Krypton gas is emerging as a potential new ingredient in efforts to make quantum-computing hardware easier to manufacture. The challenge is not only finding high-quality superconducting materials for quantum microchips, but also developing nanofabrication processes that can be used reliably and sustainably at commercial scale.

Tantalum is one material of interest because it is corrosion-resistant and can meet the need for high-quality superconducting material. However, its use creates a manufacturing hurdle: depositing tantalum onto a substrate typically requires temperatures above 400°C, or 752°F.

Those temperatures are too high for many tools currently used in semiconductor foundries. That mismatch between promising quantum-chip materials and existing production equipment is a barrier to commercialization, making lower-temperature and foundry-compatible fabrication approaches increasingly important for the quantum-computing sector.