Abstract:
Quantum computing promises exponential speed-up in solving certain complex problems that would be intractable by classical computers. However, thousands or millions of qu...Show MoreMetadata
Abstract:
Quantum computing promises exponential speed-up in solving certain complex problems that would be intractable by classical computers. However, thousands or millions of qubits might be required to solve useful problems. High-precision and low-noise electrical signals are required to manipulate and read the state of a qubit and to control qubit-to-qubit interactions. Current systems use room temperature electronics with many coax cables routed to the qubit chip inside a dilution refrigerator. This approach does not scale to large number of qubits, due to form factor, cost, power consumption and thermal load to the fridge. To address this challenge, a cryogenic qubit controller has been proposed [1]. The first integrated implementation of a cryogenic pulse modulator has been presented in [2], demonstrating the capability of manipulating (drive) the state of superconducting qubits. The work in [3] extends the capability of the controller with 3 main features: frequency-multiplexing to reduce the number of RF cables per qubit, an arbitrary I/Q pulse generation for improved control fidelity and a digitally-intensive architecture with integrated instruction set to enable integration in existing quantum control stacks. This work further advances the prior art by integrating the capability of reading the qubit state and generating the voltage pulses required for drive, readout, 2-qubit operations and qubit characterization. The SoC can drive up to 16 spin qubits by frequency multiplexing over a single RF line, read the state of up to 6 qubits simultaneously and control up to 22 gate potentials. The SoC also integrates a \mu-controller for increased flexibility in implementing the control instruction set. The proposed cryogenic controller can replace all the high-speed control electronics used in conventional solutions today, paving the way towards scalable quantum computers.
Date of Conference: 13-22 February 2021
Date Added to IEEE Xplore: 03 March 2021
ISBN Information: