The reported 10× power reduction applies to cryogenic electronics, not to a complete quantum computer. A separate 2025 study demonstrated on-chip electron cooling, reducing electron temperature by a factor of two in a single shot and holding the result for up to one second. Both advances address challenges in quantum hardware, but they perform different jobs and have different measurements.
Why do quantum computers need cryogenic control electronics?
Some quantum processors operate at extremely low temperatures, while much of the classical electronics used to control and read them may sit at room temperature. Connecting those electronics to cold qubits can require long coaxial cables. In the 2024 Nature Communications paper on integrated cryogenic electronics, the authors identify cable loss and input/output limits as obstacles to scaling this arrangement.
Moving some control or readout functions closer to the processor could reduce the burden of those connections. But electronics placed at a cold stage also dissipate heat there, so their power use matters: the refrigeration system must handle the resulting thermal load. The engineering challenge is therefore not simply to make electronics smaller or faster, but to balance integration, wiring, device performance, and the cooling capacity available at each stage.
What did the 2024 low-power electronics study measure?
The 2024 Nature Communications study integrated III–V two-dimensional electron-gas (2DEG) and niobium (Nb) superconducting electronics with silicon. It reported measurements at 4 K and more than 10 times lower power consumption than conventional CMOS for the reported cryogenic electronics benchmark. That is a device/electronics comparison; it is not a measurement showing that an entire quantum computer uses one-tenth as much electricity.
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The same study reported a unity current-gain cutoff frequency of 601 GHz and a unity power-gain cutoff frequency of 593 GHz at 4 K. These are device-frequency metrics, not measurements of the number of qubits controlled, total system power, or wall-plug efficiency. The paper frames the platform as relevant to scalable control and readout for silicon spin qubits, but does not demonstrate a million-qubit computer.
How does the separate on-chip electron cooler work?
A 2025 Physical Review B study investigated a different use of a two-dimensional electron gas: cooling its electrons. Gate voltages manipulate the populations of the 2DEG’s sub-bands, enabling the reported refrigeration effect. In a single shot, the study measured a factor-of-two reduction in electron temperature, with the cooled state held for up to one second.
The paper identifies heat leaking in through phonons as a fundamental limit. It discusses arrays of coolers as a possible route to continuous cooling and to microkelvin device temperatures, but those are prospective outcomes, not demonstrated system-level performance. The reported factor-of-two change also does not establish an absolute final electron temperature in the information available here.
How do the reported approaches compare?
| Study and year | Function and technology | Temperature reported | Reported measurement or estimate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nature Communications, 2024 | Low-power cryogenic electronics: III–V 2DEG and Nb superconducting electronics integrated with silicon | Electronics measured at 4 K | More than 10× lower power than conventional CMOS for the reported electronics benchmark; 601 GHz unity current-gain and 593 GHz unity power-gain cutoff frequencies |
| Physical Review B, 2025 | Direct electron refrigeration: gate-controlled sub-band populations in a 2DEG | Absolute electron temperature not stated in the available study summary | Single-shot electron-temperature reduction by a factor of two, held for up to one second; continuous operation and microkelvin device temperatures are proposed possibilities |
| Nature Electronics, 2020 | CMOS chip generating qubit-control signals | Chip at 100 mK | Average 18 nW per cell to generate 100 mV control pulses, measured across six cells; the paper separately estimates that a thousand-cell system could be cooled by a commercially available dilution refrigerator |
| Nature, 2021 | Cryogenic CMOS controller generating microwave bursts for silicon qubits | Controller at 3 K; qubits at 20 mK | Demonstrated controller operation at 3 K while driving qubits at 20 mK; a directly comparable power figure is not stated here |
These results are not an apples-to-apples ranking. They use different materials and functions, operate at different temperatures, and report different quantities: device power, per-cell pulse-generation power, or a change in electron temperature. In particular, the 2020 thousand-cell figure is an estimate, not a measured thousand-cell system.
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Does this mean a quantum computer will consume 10× less power?
No such whole-machine reduction was established by these results. A component-level comparison does not account for all the power used by a quantum computer, including other control and readout electronics and the refrigeration needed to keep its stages cold. The 2025 cooler’s temperature reduction is a separate result; it is not the source of the 2024 electronics power comparison.
To establish a system-level benefit, a scaled, integrated system would need to show how its electronics and cooling work together under a defined workload, and report the total thermal and electrical budget. The available study summaries do not establish that outcome, commercial readiness, or performance at million-qubit scale.
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