ICARUS-Q: Integrated Control and Readout Unit for Scalable Quantum Processors

TL;DR

This paper introduces ICARUS-Q, a scalable control and readout system for superconducting qubits utilizing Xilinx RFSoC technology, enabling synchronized, mixer-free microwave pulse generation and remote experiment access.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel integrated control and measurement setup for superconducting qubits based on RFSoC technology, enhancing scalability and synchronization.

Findings

Direct microwave pulse generation up to the third Nyquist zone

Synchronization of multiple RFSoC boards for scalable control

Remote experiment capability via cloud access

Abstract

We present a control and measurement setup for superconducting qubits based on Xilinx 16-channel radio-frequency system-on-chip (RFSoC) device. The proposed setup consists of four parts: multiple RFSoC boards, a setup to synchronise every digital to analog converter (DAC), and analog to digital converter (ADC) channel across multiple boards, a low-noise direct current (DC) supply for tuning the qubit frequency and cloud access for remotely performing experiments. We also design the setup to be free of physical mixers. The RFSoC boards directly generate microwave pulses using sixteen DAC channels up to the third Nyquist zone which are directly sampled by its eight ADC channels between the fifth and the ninth zones.