That's why it was no surprise when the engineers at British Columbia based D-Wave Systems came to us looking for a unique product.
With quantum processing units (QPUs) that operate in a cryogenic environment, they needed something more than an "off-the-shelf" Copper PCB and could reliably withstand those low temperature operations.
The resulting product, developed through many months of collaborative research, design, and testing, was an Aluminum-Trace PCB constituted by aluminum-on-aluminum wire-bond pads and solder-on-aluminum joints which renders it superconductive and capable of operation at cryogenic temperatures.
The entire electrical path of the first Aluminum-Trace PCBs was superconducting below 500 milliKelvin temperature, and tolerates repeated cryogenic temperature cycling without breaking wirebonds.
The superconductive aluminum PCB itself represents a true breakthrough for advanced computing platforms. Although aluminum had been used in PCB production in the past, ours is the first known example of a true aluminum mono-metal wirebond connection model, rather than one that simply uses the aluminum to diffuse heat from copper within printed boards.
It's a product and solution that didn't and couldn't exist just a few years ago, and we are proud to have been on the leading edge and to have met the rigorous needs of a client that's using advanced technology to change the processing world.
Beyond being a monumental achievement, we feel the Aluminum-Trace PCB highlights three unique strengths within Omni Printed Circuit Boards:
As proud as we are of this achievement, and all it means for our team and company, we look forward to working with new products to further test the possibilities of printed circuit board technology.
Contact Omni today to see why technology leaders turn to us for answers and learn exactly what we can do for you.
To learn more about our superconductive Aluminum-Trace PCBs, and possible applications of this technology, take a moment to download our design and development case study. Or our Aluminum-Trace designers Toolkit.