Researchers at the University of New South Wales have reported a significant advance in silicon-based quantum computing, achieving two-qubit gate fidelity of 99.95% in a system that operates at temperatures slightly warmer than previous designs required.

The work, published in Nature this week, builds on Australia’s decade-long investment in silicon quantum computing. Unlike the superconducting qubit systems favoured by IBM and Google, silicon qubits promise better compatibility with existing semiconductor manufacturing infrastructure.

Why This Matters

Quantum computers need error rates below specific thresholds to implement quantum error correction, the technique that will allow them to solve practical problems. The 99.95% fidelity achieved by the UNSW team puts silicon qubits firmly in that territory.

Professor Michelle Simmons, who leads the research group, told reporters the result came from improved fabrication techniques developed in partnership with Sydney-based manufacturing specialists. The team can now position individual phosphorus atoms in silicon with sub-nanometre precision.

What’s particularly notable is the operating temperature. While the qubits still need to be cold, around one degree above absolute zero, that’s warmer than many competing approaches. It reduces some of the engineering challenges in building larger systems.

The Australian Angle

Australia punches above its weight in quantum computing research. The federal government has committed more than $300 million to quantum technology development since 2020, with the UNSW centre receiving a substantial share.

Silicon Quantum Computing, a company spun out from UNSW in 2017, is now working to commercialise the research. They’re targeting a 10-qubit prototype by 2027, with ambitions for a fault-tolerant quantum computer by the early 2030s.

The approach differs from the larger qubit counts announced by overseas competitors. But raw qubit numbers don’t tell the whole story. High-fidelity operations matter more than sheer quantity, and silicon’s potential for miniaturisation could prove decisive in the long run.

Remaining Challenges

The UNSW team is upfront about what still needs solving. Scaling from a handful of qubits to the thousands or millions needed for practical applications remains a formidable engineering challenge. Each qubit needs individual control lines, and routing all those connections without introducing errors gets exponentially harder.

There’s also the question of readout fidelity. Measuring qubit states accurately enough for error correction is a separate problem from performing gates accurately. The team reports progress there too, but acknowledges more work is needed.

Collaboration between academic research groups and manufacturing partners will be critical. Some of the fabrication techniques required don’t exist in standard semiconductor plants yet. Creating them demands both research insight and industrial capability.

For organisations looking to understand when quantum computing will affect their sector, specialists in emerging technology strategy can help separate realistic timelines from hype. The UNSW result is genuine progress, but we’re still years away from quantum computers solving business problems.

What Comes Next

The UNSW group is focused on demonstrating multi-qubit operations at the same fidelity level. Two qubits is a proof of concept. Ten qubits would be a small system capable of running simple quantum algorithms. A hundred would start to look like something commercially interesting.

Australian researchers are also exploring different qubit architectures within silicon. Some groups are investigating electron spin qubits rather than nuclear spin, trading different sets of engineering challenges against each other.

International partnerships are expanding too. The team has collaborations with labs in the Netherlands, Japan and the United States, sharing fabrication techniques and measurement protocols. Quantum computing is competitive, but the research community still shares fundamental knowledge fairly openly.

The path to practical quantum computers remains long and uncertain. But results like this week’s UNSW paper show Australian research groups remain at the frontier of what’s technically possible. Whether that translates to commercial advantage depends on sustained funding, skilled researchers, and the industrial partnerships to turn laboratory demonstrations into manufactured devices.

For now, silicon-based quantum computing in Australia is delivering the kind of incremental but meaningful progress that could, over time, add up to something transformative.