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ARFTG Microwave Measurement Conference

Cryogenic Calibration of a Quantum-based Radio Frequency Source

Alírio Boaventura, Justus A. Brevik, Dylan Forrest Williams, Anna E. Fox, Manuel C. Castellanos Beltran, P. F. Hopkins, Paul D. Dresselhaus, Samuel P. Benz

Published Aug 4, 2020• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report on the calibration of quantum-based radio frequency waveforms generated by a Josephson arbitrary waveform synthesizer system. We measure these waveforms using a vector network analyzer and calibrate them at 4 K using a custom-designed cryogenic on-wafer multi-line thru-reflect-line calibration kit and a two-tier calibration procedure. The signals tested in this work can be used as reference signals to calibrate measurement instruments with potential benefits in terms of accuracy and flexibility compared to the conventional methods.

DOI
10.1109/arftg47271.2020.9241383

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This article presents a superconducting voltage source that generates modulated microwave waveforms with quantum-based stability. The voltage source—an RF Josephson Arbitrary Waveform Synthesizer (RF-JAWS)—uses a superconducting IC with an array of 4500 series-connected Josephson junctions (JJs) that are embedded in a coplanar waveguide (CPW) transmission line. The JJs are driven with 100-ps wide current pulses that force each JJ to generate voltage pulses with a quantized integrated area. A pulse sequence is created using a delta-sigma ($\Delta –––\Sigma )algorithmtogeneratea101−tonewaveformwitha40−MHzinstantaneousbandwidtharound1005MHzwithaflatpowerdistributionof−53dBmandaSchroederphasedistribution.TheJJ’squantum−basednonlinearityproducesanamplitudestabilitywithrespecttovariousdriveandbiasparametersof±0.005dBandadetrendedphasestabilityof±0.05°.Thestabilityofthesourceisverifiedwithouttheneedforcalibratedmeasurements.Another) algorithm to generate a 101-tone waveform with a 40-MHz instantaneous bandwidth around 1005 MHz with a flat power distribution of −53 dBm and a Schroeder phase distribution. The JJ’s quantum-based nonlinearity produces an amplitude stability with respect to various drive and bias parameters of ±0.005 dB and a detrended phase stability of ±0.05°. The stability of the source is verified without the need for calibrated measurements. Another)algorithmtogeneratea101−tonewaveformwitha40−MHzinstantaneousbandwidtharound1005MHzwithaflatpowerdistributionof−53dBmandaSchroederphasedistribution.TheJJ’squantum−basednonlinearityproducesanamplitudestabilitywithrespecttovariousdriveandbiasparametersof±0.005dBandadetrendedphasestabilityof±0.05°.Thestabilityofthesourceisverifiedwithouttheneedforcalibratedmeasurements.Another\Delta –––\Sigma $pulse sequence generates a 10-MHz quadrature-phase shift-keying (QPSK) waveform on a 1005-MHz carrier that has the same stability and the mean error vector magnitude (EVM) of −48 dB. This work is a step toward creating a quantum-based reference source for power and cross-frequency phase calibrations, as well as a reference-modulated signal source for calibrating telecommunication links.