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arXiv:2403.09526 · IEEE Transactions on Quantum Engineering

Optimizing the Electrical Interface for Large-Scale Color-Center Quantum Processors

Luc Enthoven, Masoud Babaie, Fabio Sebastiano

Published Jan 1, 2024• 10 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Quantum processors based on color centers in diamond are promising candidates for future large-scale quantum computers thanks to their flexible optical interface, (relatively) high operating temperature, and high-fidelity operation. Similar to other quantum computing platforms, the electrical interface required to control and read out such qubits may limit both the performance of the whole system and its scalability. To address this challenge, this work analyzes the requirements of the electrical interface and investigates how to efficiently implement the electronic controller in a scalable architecture comprising a large number of identical unit cells. Among the different discussed functionalities, a specific focus is devoted to the generation of the static and dynamic magnetic fields driving the electron and nuclear spins, because of their major impact on fidelity and scalability. Following the derived requirements, different system architectures, such as a qubit frequency-multiplexing scheme, are considered to identify the most power efficient approach, especially in the presence of inhomogeneity of the qubit Larmor frequency across the processor. As a result, a non-frequency-multiplexed 1-$\,\mathrm{m}\mathrm{m}^{2}$unit-cell architecture is proposed as the optimal solution, able to address up to one electron-spin qubit and nine nuclear-spin qubits within a 3-mW average power consumption, thus establishing the baseline for the scalable electrical interface for future large-scale color-center quantum computers.

DOI
10.1109/tqe.2024.3416836

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Quantum processors based on color centers in diamond are promising candidates for future large-scale quantum computers thanks to their flexible optical interface, (relatively) high operating temperature, and high-fidelity operation. Similar to other quantum computing platforms, the electrical interface required to control and read out such qubits may limit both the performance of the whole system and its scalability. To address this challenge, this work analyzes the requirements of the electrical interface and investigates how to efficiently implement the electronic controller in a scalable architecture comprising a large number of identical unit cells. Among the different discussed functionalities, a specific focus is devoted to the generation of the static and dynamic magnetic fields driving the electron and nuclear spins, because of their major impact on fidelity and scalability. Following the derived requirements, different system architectures, such as a qubit frequency-multiplexing scheme, are considered to identify the most power efficient approach, especially in the presence of inhomogeneity of the qubit Larmor frequency across the processor. As a result, a non-frequency-multiplexed 1- mm2\,\mathrm{m}\mathrm{m}^{2}mm2unit-cell architecture is proposed as the optimal solution, able to address up to one electron-spin qubit and nine nuclear-spin qubits within a 3-mW average power consumption, thus establishing the baseline for the scalable electrical interface for future large-scale color-center quantum computers.
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Quantum computers have gained widespread interest as they can potentially solve problems that are intractable even for today’s supercomputers, such as the simulation of quantum systems as initially proposed by Feynman. To achieve such tremendous progress, a quantum computer relies on processing the information stored in quantum bits (qubits), the fundamental units of quantum computation, similar to the bits in a classical (i.e., non-quantum) processor. In general, a quantum processor comprising several qubits is connected through a quantum-to-classical interface consisting of classical electrical circuits for manipulating and reading out their quantum state. The accuracy of an operation on a qubit is characterized using the fidelity, which is 100 % in case of a perfect operation. In practice, a fidelity between 99 % and 99.9 % is typically achieved in today’s experiments with less than 100 qubits, limited by non-idealities in the control signals and by the implementation of the physical qubit itself. Since such qubit fidelities are too low to execute relevant quantum algorithms, quantum error correction schemes have been developed which rely on a much larger number of qubits to correct for possible errors, resulting in the need for quantum processors with thousands or millions of qubits. Solid-state qubits promise the largescale integration required to scale to millions of qubits, as they exploit the lithographic fabrication techniques borrowed from the semiconductor industry. However, state-of-theart solid-state qubits, such as transmons and single-electron spin qubits, must be typically cooled to cryogenic temperatures in a dilution refrigerator to exhibit quantum behavior. Because of the limited number of qubits (< 100) in state-of-theart solid-state quantum processors, the classical controller is currently implemented by general-purpose instruments or by tailor-made controllers operating at room temperature connected via several wires to the qubits in the cryogenic chamber. However, these systems must scale to support millions of qubits. While scaling up the underlying quantum processor is already exceptionally challenging, building the electronics required to interface such a large-scale processor is just as relevant and arduous.
Color centers in diamonds have emerged as a leading solid-state platform for advancing quantum technologies, satisfying the DiVincenzo criteria and recently achieving a quantum advantage in secret key distribution. Recent theoretical works estimate that general-purpose quantum computing using local quantum communication networks will require millions of physical qubits to encode thousands of logical qubits, which presents a substantial challenge to the hardware architecture at this scale. To address the unanswered scaling problem, in this work, we first introduce a scalable hardware modular architecture "Quantum System-on-Chip" (QSoC) that features compact two-dimensional arrays "quantum microchiplets" (QMCs) containing tin-vacancy (SnV-) spin qubits integrated on a cryogenic application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). We demonstrate crucial architectural subcomponents, including (1) QSoC fabrication via a lock-and-release method for large-scale heterogeneous integration; (2) a high-throughput calibration of the QSoC for spin qubit spectral inhomogenous registration; (3) spin qubit spectral tuning functionality for inhomogenous compensation; (4) efficient spin-state preparation and measurement for improved spin and optical properties. QSoC architecture supports full connectivity for quantum memory arrays in a set of different resonant frequencies and offers the possibility for further scaling the number of solid-state physical qubits via larger and denser QMC arrays and optical frequency multiplexing networking.
Future universal quantum computers solving problems of practical relevance are expected to require at least 10610^6106 qubits, which is a massive scale-up from the present numbers of less than 50 qubits operated together. Out of the different types of qubits, solid state qubits are considered to be viable candidates for this scale-up, but interfacing to and controlling such a large number of qubits is a complex challenge that has not been solved yet. One possibility to address this challenge is to use qubit control circuits located close to the qubits at cryogenic temperatures. In this work we evaluate the feasibility of this idea, taking as a reference the physical requirements of a two-electron spin qubit and the specifications of a standard 65 nm complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) process. Using principles and flows from electrical systems engineering we provide realistic estimates of the footprint and of the power consumption of a complete control-circuit architecture. Our results show that with further research it is possible to provide scalable electrical control in the vicinity of the qubit, with our concept.
Quantum processors rely on classical electronic controllers to manipulate and read out the quantum state. As the performance of the quantum processor improves, non-idealities in the classical controller can become the performance bottleneck for the whole quantum computer. To prevent such limitation, this paper presents a systematic study of the impact of the classical electrical signals on the qubit fidelity. All operations, i.e. single-qubit rotations, two-qubit gates and read-out, are considered, in the presence of errors in the control electronics, such as static, dynamic, systematic and random errors. Although the presented study could be extended to any qubit technology, it currently focuses on single-electron spin qubits, because of several advantages, such as purely electrical control and long coherence times, and for their potential for large-scale integration. As a result of this study, detailed electrical specifications for the classical control electronics for a given qubit fidelity can be derived, as demonstrated with specific case studies. We also discuss the effect on qubit fidelity of the performance of the general-purpose room-temperature equipment that is typically employed to control the few qubits available today. Ultimately, we show that tailor-made electronic controllers can achieve significantly lower power, cost and size, as required to support the scaling up of quantum computers.
Color centers associated with group-IV dopants in diamond with long-lived nuclear spins have emerged as major candidates for distributed quantum computing nodes and quantum repeaters. Several proof-of-principle experiments have already been demonstrated. A key operation for long-distance entanglement-distribution protocols are fast and robust gates between the electron spin and a nuclear spin. Here, we investigate numerically for an existing experimental platform of a Germanium-vacancy (GeV) center with a strongly-coupled 13{}^{13}13C spin, how such gates can be implemented via quantum optimal control. In the presence of realistic noise we investigate different parameter regimes and gate operations and obtain robust two-qubit gates with fidelities exceeding 99.9%99.9 \%99.9%. The framework provides a scalable strategy for group-IV quantum nodes and can be adapted to related architectures.