Open sourced control hardware for quantum computers

The Berkeley Lab's Advanced Quantum Testbed (AQT) has an open source electronics control and measurement system for the emerging hardware. One of the leading quantum computing technologies is superconducting circuits.

AQT has a qubit control system that is modular. The performance data of QubiC was published. The AQT QubiC design was led by researchers from Berkeley Lab and utilized a robust technological legacy in research and development. The Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program is funded by the Department of Energy Office of Science.

There is a need for more affordable qubit control.

Electronic controls that can manipulate qubits are required for quantum information processors. The control hardware that maximizes quantum computers is both theoretical and experimental. Current coherence times are short-lived and most commercially available electronic equipment is designed for non- quantum systems. With a growing number of qubits, the cost, size, and complexity of control and measurement hardware increases. This is a significant roadblock for junior academic research groups.

The Berkeley Lab is working with AQT to tackle the control challenges by designing modular control hardware for current and future superconducting processors and open source the system's full-stack code.

Control electronics systems are not tailored for quantum control systems. The cost for control hardware should not be linear or exponential. By building this as a more accessible and affordable system from the ground up, we know what happens underneath for further integrations and to try to scale the design.

QubiC uses a field-Programmable gate array to control the signals at room temperature and measure the qubits cooled down to cryogenic temperatures. AQT has a fridge that reaches very low temperatures.

The control and measurement protocols implemented in the Python-based software and firmware of QubiC are used to characterization and benchmark the quantum chips, improve one- and two-qubit gate algorithms, and mitigate errors. Experiments have shown that QubiC can execute quantum algorithms with promising synchronicity and speed, and deliver results similar to commercially available systems at less cost.

We are working on providing a more modular and affordable hardware control solution that performs equal to or slightly better with the added benefits.

QubiC can be used with commercial and custom-designed electronics. Users from a variety of national laboratories, startups, and companies have shown strong interest to deploy their projects using QubiC.

The community benefits from open source because more people can contribute, modify, and improve the system. As an early career researcher involved in its design, I have learned to integrate different disciplines from engineering to physics to experiments.

The legacy of particle accelerators can be used to leverage it.

The research and development of AQT's control hardware comes from a seemingly unlikely source, but that is in line with Berkeley Lab's history. Accelerators speed up charged particles and funnel them into a controlled beam to explore matter and energy across their many sizes and purposes.

The need for state-of-the-art instrumentation and control systems increases as particle accelerators grow more powerful. Particle beams and the sophisticated equipment that produces them are critical to stabilizing them. The resulting technology and know-how can benefit many other fields.

Expertise in these control systems is a common resource crucial to the varied efforts of the ATAP Division. BACI has a long history of developing control systems for particle accelerator projects.

The work with advanced RF control technology and engineering for particle beams helped us streamline the customization for quantum hardware.

The QubiC design for AQT's superconducting processors is a classic example of how capabilities developed for one area can benefit others in the team-science tradition of Berkeley Lab.

The open access testbed is open.

The open source control hardware used in the Berkeley Lab quantum computing testbed program is inspired by technology transfer of particle accelerators, which is why AQT researchers have pioneered the open source control hardware used in the Berkeley Lab quantum computing testbed program.

By giving AQT users full stack access to QubiC and its infrastructure, the broader community has access to state-of-the-art superconducting quantum processors and co-participates in their evolution, potentially making QubiC compatible with other quantum computing technologies as well.

More information: Yilun Xu et al, QubiC: An Open-Source FPGA-Based Control and Measurement System for Superconducting Quantum Information Processors, IEEE Transactions on Quantum Engineering (2021). DOI: 10.1109/TQE.2021.3116540 Citation: Open sourced control hardware for quantum computers (2022, February 24) retrieved 24 February 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-02-sourced-hardware-quantum.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.