M2CS: A Microwave Measurement and Control System for Large-scale Superconducting Quantum Processors

TL;DR

The paper introduces M2CS, a scalable and flexible microwave measurement and control system designed for large-scale superconducting quantum processors, demonstrating comparable performance to commercial instruments and suitability for future quantum computing needs.

Contribution

It presents a novel modular design for a microwave control system that meets the demands of large-scale quantum processors, with potential applications beyond superconducting qubits.

Findings

Key metrics comparable to commercial instruments

Qubit coherence and gate fidelities match state-of-the-art results

Scalable design supports over 1000 qubits

Abstract

As superconducting quantum computing continues to advance at an unprecedented pace, there is a compelling demand for the innovation of specialized electronic instruments that act as crucial conduits between quantum processors and host computers. Here, we introduce a Microwave Measurement and Control System (M2CS) dedicated for large-scale superconducting quantum processors. M2CS features a compact modular design that balances overall performance, scalability, and flexibility. Electronic tests of M2CS show key metrics comparable to commercial instruments. Benchmark tests on transmon superconducting qubits further show qubit coherence and gate fidelities comparable to state-of-the-art results, confirming M2CS's capability to meet the stringent requirements of quantum experiments run on intermediate-scale quantum processors. The system's compact and scalable design offers significant room for further enhancements that could accommodate the measurement and control requirements of over 1000 qubits, and can also be adopted to other quantum computing platforms such as trapped ions and silicon quantum dots. The M2CS architecture may also be applied to wider range of scenarios, such as microwave kinetic inductance detectors, as well as phased array radar systems.