Modern society runs on one fundamental technology: CMOS. Every smartphone, laptop, datacenter, AI accelerator, and cloud service relies on billions of CMOS transistors working together to process information.

Without CMOS, there would be no AI, no internet as we know it.

This is why many of world’s most valuable companies like NVIDIA, Intel, and IBM build their businesses around CMOS-based computing, and why companies like TSMC and ASML have become some of the world's most valuable and strategically important technology companies. They provide the manufacturing capabilities that make advanced CMOS chips possible.

“...even the most advanced chips still face a fundamental challenge: every computation consumes energy, and some of that energy is inevitably lost as heat.”

Over the past fifty years, CMOS technology has become remarkably efficient. Yet even the most advanced chips still face a fundamental challenge: every computation consumes energy, and some of that energy is inevitably lost as heat. This happens because electrical signals encounter resistance and other physical effects as they move through the chip. The more powerful the processor, the more heat it generates.

At small scales this is manageable, but as our thirst for computing power grows, the heat generated by modern AI systems and data centers becomes a major challenge.  When exploring solutions, we shouldn’t be limited to throwing electricity, water, and money at liquid cooling systems with high costs and enormous environmental footprints. Nor do we need to ship our data into orbit, as envisioned by Elon Musk.   Rethinking the foundations of today’s electronics could make chips more energy-efficient.

At room temperature, improvements are becoming increasingly difficult because they are constrained by the fundamental physics of semiconductor devices. However, an entirely different opportunity emerges at extremely low temperatures, around −269°C (4 kelvin) or lower. At these temperatures, materials behave differently. Electrical resistance in many interconnects is greatly reduced, and superconductivity becomes possible in certain materials, opening the door to significantly more efficient electronic systems.

The problem is that existing CMOS cannot simply be placed into such an environment and are expected to operate optimally. They must be specifically designed and built for these extreme conditions.

“CMOS is the foundation of virtually all modern electronics. In the same way, cryo-optimized CMOS can become a platform technology for the next generation of computing.”

This is where SemiQon comes in.

We develop cryo-optimized CMOS electronics engineered to perform reliably and efficiently at cryogenic temperatures. The significance of this extends well beyond obvious application like quantum computing.

CMOS is the foundation of virtually all modern electronics. In the same way, cryo-optimized CMOS can become a platform technology for the next generation of computing.

We are only beginning to explore what becomes possible when the world's most important electronics platform is redesigned for an entirely new operating environment. Cryo-optimized CMOS has the potential to unlock applications that are difficult, or even impossible, to achieve with conventional room-temperature electronics, making it an exciting frontier for the future of computing.

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