Deploying QICK (Quantum Instrumentation Control Kit) for Quantum Dot Spin Qubits

The control stack for quantum dot spin qubits consists of digital-to-analog converters, arbitrary waveform generators, RF sources and upconverters, and lock-in amplifiers. While some can be developed in-house for cost-effective scaling, others require significant domain knowledge and generally rely on more expensive commercial supplies [3, 4]. In recent years, open-source control hardware has been released to make homebuilt qubit control hardware more accessible [1, 2], and their applicability has been tested extensively on superconducting qubits [5]. In this talk, we introduce our effort to transition from using commercial equipment to deploying QICK [1], an open-source FPGA control package used mostly on superconducting qubits, for quantum dot spin qubits. We run QICK on ZCU216 RFSoC and compare the latency, timing accuracy, and programmability to commercial control equipment in running pulse experiments for spin control.

[1] Stefanazzi, Leandro, et al. "The QICK (Quantum Instrumentation Control Kit): Readout and control for qubits and detectors." Review of Scientific Instruments 93.4 (2022).

[2] Xu, Yilun, et al. "QubiC: An open-source FPGA-based control and measurement system for superconducting quantum information processors." IEEE Transactions on Quantum Engineering 2 (2021): 1-11.

[3] “HDawg Arbitrary Waveform Generator.” Zurich Instrument, https://www.zhinst.com/ch/en/products/hdawg-arbitrary-waveform-generator

[4] “OPX.” Quantum Machines, https://www.quantum-machines.co/products/opx/

[5] Ding, Chunyang, et al. "Experimental advances with the QICK (Quantum Instrumentation Control Kit) for superconducting quantum hardware." Physical Review Research 6.1 (2024): 013305.