Quantinuum Outgassing Test Stand
Problem statement
The team of scientists and engineers at Quantinuum is accelerating the development of quantum computing hardware with the goal of transforming the world by achieving breakthroughs in healthcare, climate change, cybersecurity and energy transformation. This alone is an enormous feat for the brilliant minds working on this project, but when they are simultaneously attempting to overcome limitations of their test hardware and resources this task becomes nearly impossible. One of these current limitations is their ability to characterize necessary materials by testing their outgassing rates, a step that is vital to developing high-fidelity hardware. Quantinuum’s current outgassing stands are small, a 6 inch diameter by 6 inch long cylinder, and take excessive amounts of time to run tests, roughly two weeks. This means the throughput of samples tested in a given time period is very low and the team is limited by its capacity. Our team aims to eliminate this obstacle for Quantinuum to help them achieve their goals of providing groundbreaking technology in a timely manner. Our design solution will double the capacity of the system in order to significantly increase the throughput of test samples per year. Our solution will also optimize the geometry of the test-stand to increase vacuum conductance by simplifying the pipe system, and we aim to decrease the time required to perform tests by implementing an effective heating system that will decrease the outgassing time of samples.
Team members
Alec Inman – leader
Elena Moore – communicator
Isaiah Dollevoet – accountant
Caleb Starfeldt – admin
Client
Ryan Besand
Quantinuum