Frequently Asked Questions

Can I do time tagging with the OPX/OPX+?

Yes, and much more! Time tagging and TTL counting are key elements of many quantum computing platforms (e.g., defect-center and AMO) and can be performed with the OPX/OPX+ with ease. Signals coming out of single-photon counting modules (SPCMs, or similar) can be directly connected to the OPX/OPX+ inputs, and tagging/counting is then performed natively within the Pulse Processing Unit. OPX/OPX+ users employ this technique for a great deal of different applications, such as optical quantum sensing, communication, and quantum information processing. As such, counting & tagging are key components of the Quantum Orchestration Platform (QOP).

The OPX+ standard operational mode time-tags events with 1 ns timing resolution with 1 ns dead time, for each of the analog input channels. Additionally, a high-resolution time tagging mode is available, pushing the resolution down to a few tens of picoseconds (~50ps) with increased (<100ns) deadtime.

A time-tag is generated when a voltage trigger edge is detected at one of the analog inputs. The trigger edge can be defined in configuration and can be a simple threshold or an arbitrarily complicated dynamic multi-threshold, polarity, and derivative check. This allows you to easily implement complicated sequences spending virtually no time in setting up your time tagging configuration. Then, the time tagging is done easily within a measure command in a single line:

times = declare(int, size=10)
counts = declare(int)
measure([pulse],[element],[stream], time_tagging.analog([times],[duration],[counts])

This approach is universal and is fully embedded in the real-time logic of the QOP. Therefore, a time tagging command will allow for results to be used in real-time during an experiment, e.g. setting dynamic thresholds, performing estimations on the fly, or for conditional triggers. This could mean sending out a trigger pulse to a laser only if and when a signal is time-tagged and recognized as satisfying a certain threshold. It could also mean performing Bayesian estimation on a vector of tags, updating it while new tags come in. This is done with the smallest latency possible (on the order of ~100 ns for the simplest case), as all computation, tagging, and decision making is done in real-time on the FPGA-based pulse processor. 

The ability to write complex sequences with only a few lines of code while retaining the full performance of the FPGA ensures ease of use and the fastest time to result. Coding a dynamic Bayesian estimation protocol on a real experimental setup just became a first-year programming exercise.

In the QOP framework, time tagging is one of many tools that can be used for real-time branching, computation, and control. All of the analog inputs of the OPX+ allow for flexible and independent time tagging capabilities, while our next-generation product, available soon, will offer many more inexpensive digital input channels, to be used for the experiments with many digital signals involved.

How can I program multi-channel sequences with the OPX+?

The OPX+’s Pulse Processor is a multi-core processor. Each pulser core executes its own sequence independently of the others, unless a protocol calls for inter-core dependencies. Synchronizing and coordinating different threads is handled by the compiler behind the scenes, making it easy to set up complex experiments with simple instructions.

Suppose we want to play a Gaussian pulse with amplitude A1 to qubit_1, simultaneously with another Gaussian with amplitude A2 to qubit_2. This would be done with the following QUA program:

play(‘gaussian’*amp(A1), ‘qubit_1’)
play(‘gaussian’*amp(A2), ‘qubit_2’)

The two play() commands address different threads, and therefore play simultaneously. This results in an output as shown below:

We can delay one of the pulses by using the wait() command. In the following code, the qubit_1 thread alone is delayed by 20 clock cycles, while the qubit_2 thread is unaffected:

wait(20,’qubit_1’)
play(‘gaussian’*amp(A1), ‘qubit_1’)
play(‘gaussian’*amp(A2), ‘qubit_2’)

Many experiment protocols call for one sequence to begin only after another sequence is finished. Rather than manually calculate the duration of the first sequence, this can be implemented in QUA with the align() command:

play(‘gaussian’*amp(A1), ‘qubit_1’)
wait(20,’qubit_1’)
play(‘gaussian’*amp(A1), ‘qubit_1’)
align(‘qubit_1’, ‘qubit_2’)
play(‘gaussian’*amp(A2), ‘qubit_2’)

This results in the following output:

The align(‘qubit_1’, ‘qubit_2’) command causes the two threads to wait for each other. Any command appearing below this line that addresses either of the two threads will only be implemented after both have completed all commands appearing above this line. This dependency is evaluated in real time, and synchronizes the threads even if the duration of the first sequence is not known at compile time!

This last point is vital for many sequences, such as repeat-until-success protocols. Consider the following code:

with while_(result>0.2 && N < 1000):
          ### Subroutine involving ‘qubit_1’ ###
          align(‘qubit_1’, ’qubit_2’)
          play(‘gaussian’*amp(A2), ‘qubit_2’)

This will run a nondeterministic while() loop, within which the OPX+ might play pulses to qubit_1, measure it, update the result variable based on the measurement, and increment the counter variable N. It might run a single iteration before exiting the loop, and it might run 1,000. This is not known at compile time. But the simple align() still synchronizes the pulses, with all of the real-time control complexity handled by the compiler.

Why use a new quantum programming language, QUA, and how do I use it?

Well, there’s the long and the short of it. So let’s start with the short:

Why: Because we’ve built it to operate as quickly, efficiently, and easily with the Pulse Processor, giving you an adaptive, intuitive, and fully controllable way to probe your qubits. 

How: Surprisingly easily!

Now, let’s get into the heart of the matter:

As physicists, we understand the pain of having to learn yet another programming language, but writing FPGA and low-level code every time you want to run a Ramsey measurement? That’s a worse kind of pain. How many lines of code do you need to painstakingly write in order to run the experiments of your dreams? Probably more than you care to admit. This is where QUA comes in. QUA is a pulse-level quantum coding language that allows quantum researchers to run any experiment, on any type of qubits, quickly and easily. That Ramsey pulse, for instance, can be written, sent, and measured in just 10 lines of QUA code. But more on that in a minute.

When designing QUA, we set out to find the easiest way to program our pulses and send them to the qubit. We wanted to create a direct line of communication with our FPGA-based Pulse Processor in the OPX+, allowing us to have complete control of everything we might want. This quantum language was built by quantum physicists for quantum physicists, all with the purpose of making your quantum experiments as seamless as can be.

You write QUA the way you would explain it to other physicists in your group. You play this pulse to that element, listen on this measurement channel, demodulate that result. 

As for how the language actually works, there are three main steps: define a pulse sequence, play that pulse sequence, and measure the readout of that pulse sequence.  

The piece-de-resistance is that the compiler does all of the hard work: translating the pulses to FPGA commands. In other words, you need to program only on the high-level pulse programming language QUA, which is translated into the low-level FPGA. Programming in such a way is very useful; imagine you want to generate parametric Gaussian wavefunctions. With an AWG, you would need to upload a bunch of Gaussian profiles and figure out the timing in between. With QUA, you can set a for loop, which loops over various Gaussian amplitudes, sequentially. Turning your experiment into instructions that the FPGA can understand and run is already taken care of.

Feel free to check out this blog post with more info on QUA and the OPX+. And here is a quick guide covering the essentials of QUA.
Do feel free to reach out to us if you would like any more insight or information on how we can help you perform your experiments.

Can I implement real-time analog feedback with the OPX+?

Well, there’s the long and the short of it. So let’s start with the short:

Why: Because we’ve built it to operate as quickly, efficiently, and easily with the Pulse Processor, giving you an adaptive, intuitive, and fully controllable way to probe your qubits. 

How: Surprisingly easily!

Now, let’s get into the heart of the matter:

As physicists, we understand the pain of having to learn yet another programming language, but writing FPGA and low-level code every time you want to run a Ramsey measurement? That’s a worse kind of pain. How many lines of code do you need to painstakingly write in order to run the experiments of your dreams? Probably more than you care to admit. This is where QUA comes in. QUA is a pulse-level quantum coding language that allows quantum researchers to run any experiment, on any type of qubits, quickly and easily. That Ramsey pulse, for instance, can be written, sent, and measured in just 10 lines of QUA code. But more on that in a minute.

When designing QUA, we set out to find the easiest way to program our pulses and send them to the qubit. We wanted to create a direct line of communication with our FPGA-based Pulse Processor in the OPX+, allowing us to have complete control of everything we might want. This quantum language was built by quantum physicists for quantum physicists, all with the purpose of making your quantum experiments as seamless as can be.

You write QUA the way you would explain it to other physicists in your group. You play this pulse to that element, listen on this measurement channel, demodulate that result. 

As for how the language actually works, there are three main steps: define a pulse sequence, play that pulse sequence, and measure the readout of that pulse sequence.  

The piece-de-resistance is that the compiler does all of the hard work: translating the pulses to FPGA commands. In other words, you need to program only on the high-level pulse programming language QUA, which is translated into the low-level FPGA. Programming in such a way is very useful; imagine you want to generate parametric Gaussian wavefunctions. With an AWG, you would need to upload a bunch of Gaussian profiles and figure out the timing in between. With QUA, you can set a for loop, which loops over various Gaussian amplitudes, sequentially. Turning your experiment into instructions that the FPGA can understand and run is already taken care of.

Feel free to check out this blog post with more info on QUA and the OPX+. And here is a quick guide covering the essentials of QUA.

Do feel free to reach out to us if you would like any more insight or information on how we can help you perform your experiments.

How much pulse memory is available to store waveforms?

The OPX+ uses memory in a completely different way from your garden-variety AWG, and we should first understand how so as not to compare apples to oranges.

Consider how you would play a Ramsey sequence from an AWG with a 1 GSPS sampling rate. This involves uploading a waveform long enough to contain the two excitation pulses as well as the delay in between. If each pulse is 20 ns long, and the delay between them is 1000 ns, then at a sampling rate of 1 GSPS this waveform would consist of 1040 samples.

The OPX+ pulse processor operates in a completely different manner. Firstly, only the pulse amplitude is stored in the memory; upconversion to the intermediate frequency happens in real time. A pulse of constant amplitude and arbitrary length is thus generated from a single sample!

For the Ramsey sequence we might want the 20 ns pulse to have a Gaussian envelope, and accordingly use 20 samples of waveform memory. The QUA program to run a Ramsey sequence would look like this:

play(“Gaussian”,”Qubit”)
wait(t_delay)
play(“Gaussian”,”Qubit”)

The OPX+ uses the same waveform memory to play the Gaussian twice, and can just as easily play it a thousand times — with the same 20 samples! In fact, it can dynamically change the Gaussian amplitude, or stretch the Gaussian for a pulse duration longer than 20 ns — whether pre-programmed or in a real-time response to measurement — without using additional memory.

What about the wait(t_delay) command? An AWG requires a long sequence of zeros to space the pulses, and since characterization of high-coherence devices require long delay times, memory limitations can be prohibitive. But in the OPX+ the wait() command does not use any waveform memory!

A full Ramsey experiment, including a measurement operation followed by a wait() command to allow the qubit to return to the ground state, would look like this:

with for_each_(t_delay, t_values):
        play(“Gaussian”,”Qubit”)
        wait(t_delay)
        play(“Gaussian”,”Qubit”)
        measure(“Readout”,”Qubit”,...)
        wait(reset)

The array t_values over which we are looping for t_delay can contain a million values, and the variables t_delay and reset can have values of seconds — and the entire experiment will still exploit the same 20 samples of waveform memory.

Now that we understand how powerfully and intelligently the OPX+ utilizes its memory, we can give a short answer: Each OPX+ channel has a waveform memory of 2^16 = 65,536 samples. This sounds small for an AWG, but is huge for a pulse processor!

Would the QOP still be useful to me if I’ve already purchased general-purpose equipment like AWGs and digitizers?

Of course! Such systems can co-exist with the Quantum Orchestration Platform in three different ways:

1. Suppose you wish to synchronize other instruments with the OPX+ for them to work on the same clock and work simultaneously (e.g play pulses to different qubits simultaneously from the OPX+ and an AWG). In that case, you can use one or several digital output ports of the OPX+ as triggers. For example, you can run a very complex pulse sequence including playing pulses, doing Bayesian estimations, time tagging, etc., and simply trigger another AWG to play some of the needed pulses in the course of the sequence.
   
2. Suppose you want to run a multi-axes protocol in which, for instance, the outer loop is an external device (e.g Yokogawa, or another low-frequency source) and the inner-loop is a QUA program. In that case, you can do it synchronously by using the QUA commands pause() and resume(). This is very easy to do.
   
3. One last and very convenient feature for synchronizing with other instruments is employing the digital inputs of the OPX+. Then, you can trigger the OPX+ from an external device and use the QUA command wait_for_trigger() so that you can hold any program at any point and wait for an external signal to arrive.

How can I do an active reset?

measure(readout_pulse, resonator, …)
save(I, I1+Q1)
with if_(I>I_threshold):
     play(pi_pulse, qubit)

The measure command sends a pulse to the resonator, acquires the response, demodulates the response, and extracts the I and Q values which can then be used further down the QUA program to perform feedback on a qubit coupled to the resonator – for instance, to perform an active reset sequence. The if statement checks whether the I quadrature is above a certain threshold, indicating that the qubit is in the excited state and if so, sends a pi pulse to bring back the qubit to the ground state.

What if I don’t currently have a demand for feedback control?

Feedback is a powerful capability of our system, especially when scaling-up. However, many of our customers do not use feedback capabilities at all. The real-time parametrization of the waveform generation and the waveform acquisition, combined with the real-time processing and server-processing, as well as QUA as an intuitive and easy-to-use language – make for a huge impact even if you are not yet doing any feedback.

The fact that you do not need to upload samples/memory to the device between two iterations of the experiment, can make the experimental run orders of magnitude faster. For instance, communication with an AWG can take 100s of milliseconds or more depending on the experiment. Having to upload the samples for every iteration of the experiment can become prohibitively expensive in terms of runtime. When scanning multidimensional parameter space (three or four nested for-loops), you can easily reach 1 million iterations of the same experiment with different parameterization. If it takes only 0.1 seconds to update the WG you have already wasted more than a day only uploading data to the AWG.

If the actual experiment time is 10 microseconds, for instance, the actual run time of 1 million iterations on the OPX+ would only be about 10 seconds.

Many students who got used to our systems are not even willing to use their old AWGs anymore, regardless of whether they do feedback.  It is also important to note, however, that we often see with our customers that ‘with food comes the appetite’: once you have a whole new set of capabilities, researchers come up with ways to leverage them, be it by new ideas for experiments or for optimizing their current experiments.

Can I trigger this device (OPX+) – Is there an external clock input?

Yes. It is possible to use external triggers that can be sent and received to and from other devices in the lab. You may use 10MHz, 100MHz, and 1000MHz to clock the OPX+.

How does the QOP integrate into the workflow of the lab and other devices?

The Quantum Orchestration Platform (QOP) normally replaces most AWGs and acquisition systems in the lab, but can still interface with other instruments via the use of external triggers that can be sent and received to and from other equipment in the lab. In the future, it will also be possible to interface via USB and other interfaces.

How can I connect several OPX+ boxes?

Several OPX+ boxes can be connected using the OPT clock distribution device and the OP-Switch device which takes care of inter-OPX+ communication. Pulse-skews between output ports of different OPXs+ is < 100 ps while the latency of inter-OPX+ communication is < 100 ns. Allowing you to transparently and seamlessly use the multi-pulse processing power of the whole stack.

How many inputs and outputs does QM’s quantum controller have, and how many digital vs. analog?

The Quantum Orchestration Platform (QOP) is a modular architecture, allowing you to add several OPX+ machines to scale up based on your quantum control needs. A single unit is composed of up to 10 digital outputs, 10 analog outputs, and 2 analog inputs. Several units can be combined to form a larger, synchronized system continuing up to 9 OPXs+ with the current version (90 analog outputs, 90 digital outputs, and 18 analog inputs) and the upcoming version will support many more.

Is the OPX+ a Digitizer + AWG combo?

Not at all! The QOP calculates the waveform on the fly, only the minimum necessary part of it is kept in the memory but most of it is calculated on the fly by the pulse processor. This greatly reduces memory needs. Memory is used exclusively for the definition of the baseband.

The Quantum Orchestration Platform is not an Arbitrary Waveform Generator+digitizers combo, but a whole new paradigm for the control of quantum processors. The OPX+ is a custom pulse processor with a real-time programming language that allows describing those pulses. There is nothing arbitrary about quantum protocols. If you think of a Ramsey measurement or a power-rabi, for example, it would take you no more than 2-5 sentences to describe them to a physicist. Therefore, you require a processor that can run quantum sequences (from the simple Ramsey to Quantum Error Correction), and not an arbitrary-waveform-generator.

The Quantum Orchestration Platform allows you to formulate even the most complex quantum experiments in a natural and compact manner, proportional to the amount of information in the sequence, not the number of points in the total played waveforms. QM’s quantum control hardware was tailor-made to be able to run such complex protocols.

How can the QOP help me in the trapping and arranging process in atoms/ions-based architectures?

Multiple pulsers can be combined and sent to the same output port, thereby generating a fully, real-time controllable multi-tone pulse capable of, for instance, driving an Acousto Optic Deflector (AOD) in order to perform parallel atom arrangements on a tweezer array. 

The flexible QUA programming language allows you to easily implement any atom-sorting algorithm you can think of (using less than ~100 lines of code and without the need to configure DDSs or write FPGA code to drive SDRs).

What does it mean that the Pulse Processor can run even the most complex quantum experiments out-of-the-box?

The pulse-processor orchestrates all the waveform generation, waveform acquisition, classical processing, and control flow in real-time. But what is its API?

The API for the pulse processor is QUA: a powerful yet intuitive quantum programming language. In QUA you can formulate any protocol/experiment – from spectroscopy to quantum-error-correction. Once the program is formulated it is compiled by the XQP compiler to the assembly language of the pulse processor. Next, the program, now formulated in the pulse processor’s assembly language, is sent to the pulse processor which runs it in real-time.

Using the intuitive QUA language and our compiler, you can now directly and intuitively code complex sequences from a high-level programming language, including real-time feedback, classical calculations (Turing-complete), comprehensive control flow, etc. 

What is the Pulse Processor, and how does it perform qubit control?

As physicists, we always like to ask the more fundamental questions, even when at first glance they seem trivial. In order to answer “what is the pulse processor,” it is useful to first answer the trivial question “what is a quantum experiment?”This is because the pulse processor was architected from the ground-up to run even the most complex quantum experiments one could think of. Now, let’s break-down a quantum experiment to four main components:

1. Gates – The different terms in the Hamiltonian which cause the sought time-evolution. These gates are usually performed by directing well-crafted pulses (laser, microwave) to the qubits.
2. Measurements – Since you’re a classical being, at some point, you will have to collapse the system so you can “see it for yourself”. The measurements are performed in various ways – ADCs, SPCMs, PDs, cameras, etc.
3. Classical processing – There is no quantum processing without classical processing. Whether it’s demodulation, integration, time-tagging, TTL, counting, state estimations, error-estimations, Bayesian estimations, or even arithmetics as simple as \tau=\tau+5 when looping over the time difference in a Ramsey sequence. There is not a single quantum protocol that does not require classical processing.
4. Control flow – the good-old if/else, while, for, cases, etc. From the simplest averaging loop and parameter-sweep loop, through active-reset and to multi-qubit error correction employing a multitude of nested if/else’s. Control-flow is indispensable for quantum protocols.

Every quantum experiment (or protocol) is a combination of these four elements. Every quantum protocol is an entangled sequence of gates, measurements, and classical processing, all combined in various ways and wrapped with various control-flow statements. And someone has to orchestrate all that!

The Pulse Processor is a processor architected to run sequences that combine all the above in real-time, in a perfectly synchronized and orchestrated way. That includes:

1. Waveform generation in a fully parametric manner. Namely, the pulse processor does not need you to load all the pulses in advance, but rather it generates them in real-time as defined by the program. In other words, the pulse processor directly processes pulses as opposed to simply shoving them into memory.
2. Waveform acquisition including the acquisition of both analog data (through ADCs) and digital data (from SPCMs, PDs, camera, etc). Including continuous acquisition for CW measurements or qubit-tracking (and weak measurements) as well as pulsed acquisition in synchronization with the waveform generation and real-time processing. 
3. Real-time processing including real-time processing of acquired data (e.g weighted demodulators and integrations, image-processing, TTL counting, time-tagging, etc), state-estimations, and even neural networks.
4. Control flow including everything you typically do in MATLAB/python, now running in real-time, at time scales that are faster than your qubits (10s of nanoseconds)! Nested loops, complex branching trees with countless if/else’s, to form the most complex protocol you may have in mind.

And above all, these four elements are NOT to be regarded as independent. Quantum protocols are an interacting system, where waveform generation leads to waveform acquisition, followed by classical processing which then affects the following generated pulses. And many such threads running in parallel, and affecting each other as well.

To enable such performance, the pulse processor is built in a multi-core architecture containing several pulsers. Each pulser is an independent real-time core capable of driving one or more quantum elements (qubits, collective modes, two-/multi-level transitions, resonators, etc.). Every pulser is essentially a specialized processing unit that may simultaneously handle both waveform generation, waveform acquisition, and all the real-time calculations (classical processing) required (it is Turing complete!) in a deterministic manner and with ultra-low latency.

How is the Quantum Orchestration Platform and the OPX+ different from general-purpose test/lab equipment?

The Quantum Orchestration Platform is a whole new paradigm for quantum control and is fundamentally different from general-purpose test equipment like AWGs, lock-ins, digitizers, etc. The main differences are:

1. The span of quantum experiments & algorithms which can be run out-of-the-box
2. The pace of the research and development
3. The level of adequacy of the specific specs & capabilities required for quantum research & development (e.g like latency, run-time, etc)

1) The span of quantum experiments & algorithms which can be run out-of-the-box

We like to think of the span of experiments & algorithms which a system can run as the subspace of the experimental phase-space that it covers. While AWGs, Lock-ins, digitizers cover specific points or small regions in this phase space, the quantum orchestration platform covers it entirely. In other words, each general-purpose test tool, even if it is re-branded as a quantum controller, has a fixed set of allowable functions. The Quantum Orchestration Platform (QOP)  however, is a full-stack system allowing you to easily and quickly run even your dream experiments and real-time sequences out-of-the-box, from a high-level programming language, QUA. In most cases, each test and measure tool can be expressed and implemented as a single QUA program that can run on the QOP. Alternatively, each such instrument can be described by omitting a different subspace of the full QOP’s phase-space.

2) The pace of the research and development

Every once in a while you have a new brilliant idea for an experiment. While these ideas are more groundbreaking, they are also more challenging and end up being outside the scope of your general-purpose test equipment (its subspace). Once this happens, you have 3 choices:

1. Repurpose your general-purpose. It appears that in all labs such repurposing draws an incredible amount of time and resources, which comes at the expense of the physics and science to be explored. Whether it’s FPGA programming, coding libraries, dealing with drivers, or synchronizing different modules, labs spend years of work on repurposing general-purpose AWGs, Lock-ins, and digitizers for quantum control. It’s often required even for the simplest Ramsey and spectroscopy, and it’s always a must when it comes to multi-axes tomography, the 2-qubit RB sequence, and all the way to multi-qubit quantum-error-correction. We’ve met students who themselves spent months and years doing so. We actually did it ourselves!
2. Give up your brilliant idea and introduce a new constraint for your ideas’ phase-space. It must comply with the experimental phase-space covered by your existing control system.
3. Get an OPX+! We firmly believe that scientific progress relies on ideas, but also on the capabilities of the tools we use. Even our ideas in many cases stem from what we define as technically possible. Our goal at QM is to let you imagine any experiment, the most groundbreaking research, and the most sought-for flagship papers, and always know: yes, of course, it can run. Right out of the box!

In experimental physics, there are many bottlenecks. Long fabrication processes, mirrors alignment (and re-alignment!), helium leakages, vacuum-chamber baking, lead times of crucial equipment, and last but not least: in-house development of quantum control capabilities. Specifically, in quantum computing, the control layer can either be an enabler to progress rapidly and run even the most complex experiments seamlessly or be one of the leading bottlenecks in the lab. Our mission is to allow all teams to run even the wildest experiments of their dreams seamlessly and push the boundaries of the physics they can explore to a whole new level. 

3) The level of adequacy for the specific specs & capabilities required for quantum research & development

The general-purpose equipment available today was not built for quantum. In the best-case scenario, it was rebranded. AWGs, lock-ins, and digitizers are used for communication systems, lidars, medical device research, and the list goes on. Of course, we don’t mind non-quantum-experimentalists using the same machines, but this has several consequences. First,  these machines are limited in the feature-set they provide. They are also misaligned with the requirements of quantum computing by not supplying you with the critical features you require. And finally, they equip you with quite a few features you simply don’t need (that you’re still paying for). The QOP full-stack quantum control hardware and software and all of its features was created by quantum physicists for quantum physicists, with your experimental needs in mind.