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arXiv:2511.04397 · Review of Scientific Instruments

Microwave Output Stabilization of a Qubit Controller via Device-Level Temperature Control

Yoshinori Kurimoto, Dongjun Lee, Koichiro Ban, Shinichi Morisaka, Toshi Sumida, Hidehisa Shiomi, Yosuke Ito, Yuuya Sugita, Makoto Negoro, Ryutaro Ohira, Takefumi Miyoshi

quant-phSubmitted Nov 6, 2025• Announced Nov 7, 2025• 1 citation• Revised Feb 28, 2026 (v2)
v1 · Nov 6, 2025v2 · Feb 28, 2026
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Abstract

We present the design and performance of QuEL-1 SE, which is a multichannel qubit controller developed for superconducting qubits. The system incorporates the active thermal stabilization of critical analog integrated circuits, such as phase-locked loops, amplifiers, and mixers, to suppress the long-term amplitude and phase drift. To evaluate the amplitude and phase stability, we simultaneously monitor 15 microwave output channels over 24 h using a common analog-to-digital converter. Across the channels, the normalized amplitude exhibits standard deviations of 0.09\%--0.22\% (mean: 0.15\%), and the phase deviations are 0.35$^\circ$--0.44$^\circ$ (mean: 0.39$^\circ$). We further assess the impact of these deviations on quantum gate operations by estimating the average fidelity of an $X_{π/2}$ gate under the coherent errors corresponding to the deviations. The resulting gate infidelities are $2\times 10^{-6}$ for amplitude errors and $2\times 10^{-5}$ for phase errors, which are significantly lower than typical fault-tolerance thresholds such as those of the surface code. These results demonstrate that the amplitude and phase stability of QuEL-1 SE enables reliable long-duration quantum operations, thus highlighting its utility as a scalable control platform for superconducting and other qubit modalities.

Comments
Accepted for publication in Review of Scientific Instruments

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We present the design and performance of QuEL-1 SE, which is a multichannel qubit controller developed for superconducting qubits. The system incorporates the active thermal stabilization of critical analog integrated circuits, such as phase-locked loops, amplifiers, and mixers, to suppress the long-term amplitude and phase drift. To evaluate the amplitude and phase stability, we simultaneously monitor 15 microwave output channels over 24 h using a common analog-to-digital converter. Across the channels, the normalized amplitude exhibits standard deviations of 0.09%--0.22% (mean: 0.15%), and the phase deviations are 0.35∘^\circ∘--0.44∘^\circ∘ (mean: 0.39∘^\circ∘). We further assess the impact of these deviations on quantum gate operations by estimating the average fidelity of an Xπ/2X_{π/2}Xπ/2​ gate under the coherent errors corresponding to the deviations. The resulting gate infidelities are 2×10−62\times 10^{-6}2×10−6 for amplitude errors and 2×10−52\times 10^{-5}2×10−5 for phase errors, which are significantly lower than typical fault-tolerance thresholds such as those of the surface code. These results demonstrate that the amplitude and phase stability of QuEL-1 SE enables reliable long-duration quantum operations, thus highlighting its utility as a scalable control platform for superconducting and other qubit modalities.
In the quest to build a fault-tolerant quantum computer, superconducting circuits based on Josephson junctions have emerged as a leading architecture. Coherence times have increased significantly over the last two decades, and processors with ∼ 50 qubits have been experimentally demonstrated. These systems traditionally utilize microwave frequency control signals, and heterodyne based detection schemes for measurement. Both of these techniques rely heavily on room temperature microwave generators, high-bandwidth lines from room temperature to millikelvin temperatures, and bulky non-reciprocal elements such as cryogenic microwave isolators. Reliance on these elements makes it impractical to scale existing devices up a single order of magnitude, let alone the 5-6 orders of magnitude needed for performing fault-tolerant quantum algorithms. Here, I present results that suggesting superconducting digital logic, namely Single Flux Quantum (SFQ) logic, can replace analog control and measurement techniques, avoiding the significant overhead involved. I describe a scheme for measuring qubits with a device known as a Josephson Photomultiplier (JPM), which crucially stores the result of a qubit measurement in a classical circulating supercurrent within the device and allows for integration with SFQ detection circuitry. This technique is experimentally demonstrated, with single-shot measurement fidelity of 92%. Two methods for accessing this measurement result are presented, one utilizing ballistic fluxons, and another utilizing flux comparison. Initial experimental results of the latter are presented. In addition, I describe a scheme for controlling qubits with sequences of digital SFQ pulses. This method is then used to control a qubit without a microwave signal generator, with results of an average single-qubit gate fidelity of around 95%. When combined, these techniques form a nearly fully digital interface to superconducting qubits, which could allow these systems to scale much more easily.
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Control electronics for superconducting quantum processors have strict requirements for accurate command of the sensitive quantum states of their qubits. Hinging on the purity of ultra-phase-stable oscillators to upconvert very-low-noise baseband pulses, conventional control systems can become prohibitively complex and expensive when scaling to larger quantum devices, especially as high sampling rates become desirable for fine-grained pulse shaping. Few-gigahertz radio-frequency (RF) digital-to-analog converters (DACs) present a more economical avenue for high-fidelity control while simultaneously providing greater command over the spectrum of the synthesized signal. Modern RF DACs with extra-wide bandwidths are able to directly synthesize tones above their sampling rates, thereby keeping the system clock rate at a level compatible with modern digital logic systems while still being able to generate high-frequency pulses with arbitrary profiles. We have incorporated custom superconducting qubit control logic into off-the-shelf hardware capable of low-noise pulse synthesis up to 7.5 GHz using an RF DAC clocked at 5 GHz. Our approach enables highly linear and stable microwave synthesis over a wide bandwidth, giving rise to high-resolution control and a reduced number of required signal sources per qubit. We characterize the performance of the hardware using a five-transmon superconducting device and demonstrate consistently reduced two-qubit gate error (as low as 1.8%), which we show results from superior control chain linearity compared to traditional configurations. The exceptional flexibility and stability further establish a foundation for scalable quantum control beyond intermediate-scale devices.
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