A scalable quantum computing control architecture

To support the quantum computing roadmap towards real-world applications, control electronics must advance in concert with device quality, circuit scale, and algorithmic efficiency as the classical interface of quantum information processors. Control system engineering needs to satisfy challenging, and often competing, requirements of excellent signal quality, high-speed signal processing, low cost, and architecture scalability. Here, we show these challenges are addressed with several innovations in our system control solution. Pulsed microwave signals are generated with high spectral purity and stability using double-superheterodyne frequency-conversion circuits. The pulse-level sequencing technique, while providing an intuitive programming interface, enables real-time signal parameter updates and efficient, parallel qubit tune-up. Low-latency communication channels in a centralized real-time feedback network are designed to empower measurement-based quantum error correction. Combined with a performant control software layer, this quantum computing control system is capable of supporting the experimentation of both NISQ-area quantum processors and fault-tolerant quantum information machines.