In quantum computing, manipulating fragile quantum states requires precise control. Traditionally, microwave signals used for qubit control are generated via mixers. The novel, cutting-edge Direct Digital Synthesis (DDS) offers a more elegant, better performing, and scalable solution.
DDS bypasses the need for complex multi-component modulation, directly generating the desired microwave waveforms from digital data. This simplifies the setup and brings many advantages. It eliminates the need for analog local oscillators and calibration, improves agility and flexibility in playing tones, and allows for longer coherence times with lower phase noise and high spurious-free dynamic range. Moreover, it offers a practical path to cost-effectively scale and control large quantum processing units.
Enhanced Microwave Generation Performance
Thanks to DDS, the MW-FEM offers the best performance and some best-in-industry features:
Very high Spurious-Free Dynamic Range(SFDR) across the entire spectrum: Greater than 60 dBc across the entire frequency range of 0.05 to 10.5 GHz.
Broad bandwidthfor flexible multiplexed frequency control: With high-quality DACs and simple DDS generation chain, MW-FEM supports a very wide bandwidth around the carrier frequency. With DDS cores, the module can play several carriers from the same port, each with up to 1.6 GHz bandwidth.
Phase coherence and control for the most advanced protocols: DDS has no phase-lock loops or analog mixers. A single clock is shared among ports, allowing for low-phase noise and ultra-high-phase coherence. DDS’s NCOs have controllable phase, enabling its full real-time control.
Building large-scale quantum computers requires technologies able to handle exponential growth. Here, DDS shines for its simplicity and flexibility, offering the highest degree of scalability:
Simple generation chainand reduced component count: Traditional microwave generation techniques rely on numerous components, analog mixers, amplifiers and filters. DDS generates microwave pulses directly from digital data, achieving perfect phase control and ultra-low phase noise, reducing cost, power and space consumption. DDS enables the highest channel density in the industry, the OPX1000’s 80 channels per 3U.
Flexible modularityand real-time control at scale: Scaling up also demands adaptability to various qubit modalities, QPU size and frequencies, and to the standard of HPC. DDS offers a simple yet powerful design for a controller with the highest modularity, adaptability, redundancy and reliability.
Achieving precise control over multiple qubits with high phase coherence is essential for advanced quantum algorithms. However, traditional methods using analog mixers fall short. Their complex design limits phase coherence, while the numerous components introduce noise and hinder scaling to the thousands of control channels needed for large-scale quantum computers.
DDS offers a clear solution. A simple generation chain minimizes noise and scales effortlessly to large numbers of control channels. It excels at generating multiple signals with perfect phase coherence, enabling precise control of many qubits simultaneously. When it comes to scaling towards useful quantum computers, every detail that may impair scalability matters. Read more on our comparison of microwave solutions below.
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