Frequency crowding remains a major obstacle to scaling fixed-frequency transmon processors. Among the widely used all-microwave two-qubit gates, the cross-resonance (CR) gate is particularly sensitive to qubit-frequency spread because the conventional straddling regime condition constrains assignable qubit frequencies tightly and makes the system susceptible to frequency collisions. Here, we propose and analyze the CR gate outside the straddling regime, which we refer to as the far-detuned regime, and evaluate frequency collisions using a numerical method that remains accurate under high-intensity, smoothly ramped microwave drives. Based on this analysis, we perform systematic parameter sweeps and provide collision-free conditions that define designable frequency regions in which qubit frequencies can be assigned consistently with surrounding qubit frequencies. Furthermore, we formulate frequency allocation as a linear programming optimization on a unit-cell lattice with periodic boundary conditions to obtain an optimal allocation. We demonstrate that far-detuned designs significantly reduce collisions compared with designs in the straddling regime. Monte Carlo yield analysis indicates that 10% collision-free yield for a 1024-qubit square lattice at a 0.1% two-qubit-gate error threshold requires $σ_{\mathrm{f}}/2π\le 6.8~\mathrm{MHz}$. Our findings suggest that this is feasible with an approximately twofold reduction in the state-of-the-art qubit-frequency spread.
Frequency crowding remains a major obstacle to scaling fixed-frequency transmon processors. Among the widely used all-microwave two-qubit gates, the cross-resonance (CR) gate is particularly sensitive to qubit-frequency spread because the conventional straddling regime condition constrains assignable qubit frequencies tightly and makes the system susceptible to frequency collisions. Here, we propose and analyze the CR gate outside the straddling regime, which we refer to as the far-detuned regime, and evaluate frequency collisions using a numerical method that remains accurate under high-intensity, smoothly ramped microwave drives. Based on this analysis, we perform systematic parameter sweeps and provide collision-free conditions that define designable frequency regions in which qubit frequencies can be assigned consistently with surrounding qubit frequencies. Furthermore, we formulate frequency allocation as a linear programming optimization on a unit-cell lattice with periodic boundary conditions to obtain an optimal allocation. We demonstrate that far-detuned designs significantly reduce collisions compared with designs in the straddling regime. Monte Carlo yield analysis indicates that 10% collision-free yield for a 1024-qubit square lattice at a 0.1% two-qubit-gate error threshold requires σf/2π≤6.8MHz. Our findings suggest that this is feasible with an approximately twofold reduction in the state-of-the-art qubit-frequency spread.
Fixed-frequency transmon qubits, characterized by simple architectures and long coherence times, are promising platforms for large-scale quantum computing. However, the rapidly increasing frequency collisions, which directly reduce the fabrication yield, hinder scaling, especially in cross-resonance (CR) gate-based architectures, wherein the restricted drive frequency severely limits the available design space. We investigate the Stark-induced ZZ by level excursions (siZZle) gate, which relaxes this limitation by allowing arbitrary drive-frequency choices. Extensive numerical analyses across a broad parameter range -- including the far-detuned regime that has received negligible prior attention -- reveal wide operating windows that support controlled-Z (CZ) fidelities >99.6%. Leveraging these windows, we design lattice architectures containing >1000 qubits, showing that even under 0.25% fabrication-induced frequency dispersion, the zero-collision yields in square and heavy-hexagonal lattices reach 80% and 100%, respectively. Thus, the siZZle-CZ gate is a scalable and collision-robust alternative to the CR gate, offering a viable route toward high-yield fixed-frequency transmon quantum processors.
The cross-resonance gate (cr gate) architecture that exploits fixed-frequency transmon qubits and fixed couplings is a leading candidate for quantum computing. Nonetheless, without the tunability of qubit parameters such as qubit frequencies and couplings, gate operations can be limited by the presence of quantum crosstalk arising from the always-on couplings. When increasing system sizes, this can become even more serious, considering frequency collisions caused by fabrication uncertainties. Here, we introduce a cr-gate-based transmon architecture with passive mitigation of both quantum crosstalk and frequency collisions. Assuming typical parameters, we show that ZZ crosstalk can be suppressed while maintaining XY couplings to support fast, high-fidelity cr gates. The architecture also allows one to go beyond the existing literature by extending the operating regions in which fast, high-fidelity cr gates are possible, thus alleviating the frequency-collision issue. To examine the practicality, we analyze the cr-gate performance in multiqubit lattices and provide an intuitive model for identifying and mitigating the dominant source of error. For the state-of-the-art precision in setting frequencies, we further investigate its impact on the gates. We find that ZZ crosstalk and frequency collisions can be largely mitigated for neighboring qubits, while interactions beyond near-neighbor qubits can introduce new frequency collisions. As the strength is typically at the submegahertz level, adding weak off-resonant drives to selectively shift qubits can mitigate the collisions. This work could be useful for suppressing quantum crosstalk and improving gate fidelities in large-scale quantum processors based on fixed-frequency qubits and fixed couplings.
Implementation of high-fidelity gate operations on integrated-qubit systems is vital for fault-tolerant quantum computation. Qubit-frequency allocation is an essential part of improving control fidelity. A metric for qubit-frequency allocation, frequency collision, has been proposed on simple systems of only a few qubits driven by a monomodal microwave drive. However, frequency allocation for quantum processors for more advanced purposes, such as quantum error correction, needs further investigation. In this study, we propose a Floquet analysis of frequency collisions. The key to our proposed method is a reinterpretation of frequency collisions as an unintended degeneracy of Floquet states, which allows a collision analysis on more complex systems with many qubits driven by multimodal microwave drives. Although the Floquet state is defined in an infinite-dimensional Hilbert space, we develop algorithms, based on operation perturbation theory, to truncate the Hilbert space down to the optimal computational complexity. In particular, we show that the computational complexity of the collision analysis for a sparse qubit lattice is linear with the number of qubits. Finally, we demonstrate our proposed method on cross-resonance-based experimental protocols. We first study the cross-resonance gate in an isolated three-qubit system, where the effectiveness of our method is verified by comparing it with previous studies. We next consider the more complex problem of syndrome extraction in the heavy-hexagon code [Christopher et al., Phys. Rev. X 10, 011022 (2020). doi:10.1103/PhysRevX.10.011022]. Our proposed method advances our understanding of quantum control for quantum processors and contributes to their improved design and control.
Far-detuned frequency allocations in fixed-frequency superconducting processors mitigate spectral crowding but constrain cross-resonance interactions at practical drive amplitudes. Here, we demonstrate that a single strong drive induces a large XX−YY interaction in the far-detuned regime, while a weak second tone tunes the accompanying ZZ phase. The interaction realizes a 150-ns bSWAP gate, which can directly prepare a maximally entangled state from the ground state. For the implementations on the same qubit pair at matched drive strengths, cross resonance gives a shorter CNOT operation, while bSWAP gives a 33% shorter SWAP operation with a higher IRB fidelity. The multilevel theory further predicts a regime where stronger driving can yield a speed advantage for CNOT as well, a possibility absent in the two-level model. As an application of the XX−YY interaction, we also demonstrate two-spin squeezing beyond the standard quantum limit through two-axis countertwisting. The interaction realized here complements cross resonance and offers a route to efficient gate synthesis and quantum simulation of interacting spin systems.
We propose and analyze two types of microwave-activated gates between a fluxonium and a transmon qubit, namely a cross-resonance (CR) and a CPHASE gate. The large frequency difference between a transmon and a fluxonium makes the realization of a two-qubit gate challenging. For a medium-frequency fluxonium qubit, the transmon-fluxonium system allows for a cross-resonance effect mediated by the higher levels of the fluxonium over a wide range of transmon frequencies. This allows one to realize the cross-resonance gate by driving the fluxonium at the transmon frequency, mitigating typical problems of the cross-resonance gate in transmon-transmon chips related to frequency targeting and residual ZZ coupling. However, when the fundamental frequency of the fluxonium enters the low-frequency regime below 100MHz, the cross-resonance effect decreases leading to long gate times. For this range of parameters, a fast microwave CPHASE gate can be implemented using the higher levels of the fluxonium. In both cases, we perform numerical simulations of the gate showing that a gate fidelity above 99 can be obtained with gate times between 100 and 300ns. Next to a detailed gate analysis, we perform a study of chip yield for a surface code lattice of fluxonia and transmons interacting via the proposed cross-resonance gate. We find a much better yield as compared to a transmon-only architecture with the cross-resonance gate as native two-qubit gate.
We propose and analyze two types of microwave-activated gates between a fluxonium and a transmon qubit, namely a cross-resonance (CR) and a CPHASE gate. The large frequency difference between a transmon and a fluxonium makes the realization of a two-qubit gate challenging. For a medium-frequency fluxonium qubit, the transmon-fluxonium system allows for a cross-resonance effect mediated by the higher levels of the fluxonium over a wide range of transmon frequencies. This allows one to realize the cross-resonance gate by driving the fluxonium at the transmon frequency, mitigating typical problems of the cross-resonance gate in transmon-transmon chips related to frequency targeting and residual ZZ coupling. However, when the fundamental frequency of the fluxonium enters the low-frequency regime below 100 MHz, the cross-resonance effect decreases leading to long gate times. For this range of parameters, a fast microwave CPHASE gate can be implemented using the higher levels of the fluxonium. In both cases, we perform numerical simulations of the gate showing that a gate fidelity above 99% can be obtained with gate times between 100 and 300 ns. Next to a detailed gate analysis, we perform a study of chip yield for a surface code lattice of fluxonia and transmons interacting via the proposed cross-resonance gate. We find a much better yield as compared to a transmon-only architecture with the cross-resonance gate as native two-qubit gate.