SISPIN invented the first "quantum bit" or "qubit" in CMOS technology, the standard of the microelectronics industry. It is also the first qubit exploiting a quantum property of an electronic gap (or hole). The researchers managed to produce a compact (30 nanometer), single-hole spin in a silicon CMOS structure and turn it back by applying a voltage to the gate of a control transistor. This result, unimaginable only a few years ago, opens the way to the quantum computer, because it makes it possible to measure a qubit in a device very close to the field effect transistors present in our computers and our mobile phones, as long as they are cooled down to 0.1 K. CMOS technologies then become usable for building quantum functions. Even though, says Sanquer, "nobody knows what the qubit will be for the future quantum processors. Currently the CMOS qubit, which is neither the first nor the best qubit, offers the ideal conditions for CMOS microelectronics, a very mature industry, to apprehend the quantum world. "
