The Advanced Quantum Testbed at the Berkeley Lab Releases an Open Source Control Electronics Desi...

One of the most critical subsystems in a superconducting quantum computer is the portion of the machine that contains the control electronics. These electronics generate the microwave pulses that are used to control the qubits to implement the various gates needed to run a quantum program. Up until now, an engineer developing a quantum processor would need to chose from purchasing commercial control electronics from one of the companies specializing in these products or designing their own from scratch. Now the Advanced Quantum Testbed (AQT) at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has designed key low-noise RF mixing modules that can be used by anyone with an open source design that can be downloaded from GitLab. RF mixers convert the frequency of an incoming signal to either a higher or a lower frequency depending upon the use. By providing an open source option, a team using this for their quantum computer design could potentially save time or money or both. The team's approach was to develop small interactive mixing modules that can be configured in a modular fashion for a specific application. Although this initial design has focused on providing the controls for superconducting qubits, this technology has expansion potential for use in controlling other types of qubits. Additional information about this design can be seen in a news release provided by AQT here as well as the GitLab pages where one can access the design here.

November 11, 2021