Manarat: A Scalable QICK-Based Control System for Superconducting Quantum Processors Supporting Synchronized Control of 10 Flux-Tunable Qubits

TL;DR

Manarat is a scalable, multi-board control system for superconducting quantum processors that achieves sub-100 ps synchronization across multiple RFSoC boards, enabling reliable multi-qubit operations.

Contribution

We developed Manarat, a multi-board control platform with hardware, firmware, and software enhancements for synchronized control of 10 flux-tunable qubits.

Findings

Achieved sub-100 ps timing alignment across multiple RFSoC boards.

Demonstrated reliable synchronized control sequences on a 10-qubit processor.

Validated coherent control and calibration across boards.

Abstract

A scalable control architecture for superconducting quantum processors is essential as the number of qubits increases and coherent multi-qubit operations span beyond the capacity of a single control module. The Quantum Instrumentation Control Kit (QICK), built on AMD RFSoC platforms, offers a flexible open-source framework for pulse-level qubit control but lacks native support for multi-board synchronization, limiting its applicability to mid- and large-scale quantum devices. To overcome this limitation, we introduce Manarat, a scalable multi-board control platform based on QICK that incorporates hardware, firmware, and software enhancements to enable sub-100 ps timing alignment across multiple AMD ZCU216 RFSoC boards. Our system integrates a low-jitter clock distribution network, modifications to the tProcessor, and a synchronization scheme to ensure deterministic alignment of program execution across boards. It also includes a custom analog front-end for flux control that combines high-speed RF signals with software-programmable DC biasing voltages generated by a low-noise, high-precision DAC. These capabilities are complemented by a software stack capable of orchestrating synchronized multi-board experiments and fully integrated with the open-source Qibo framework for quantum device calibration and algorithm execution. We validate Manarat on a 10-qubit superconducting processor controlled by two RFSoC boards, demonstrating reliable execution of synchronized control sequences for cross-board CZ gate calibration. These results confirm that sub-nanosecond synchronization and coherent control is achievable across multiple RFSoC boards, enabling scalable operation of superconducting quantum computers.