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IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits

Cryogenic CMOS Microwave Signal Selector Using Dual-Stage Injection-Locked Oscillator for Frequency-Multiplexed Qubit Control System

Hiroshi Fuketa, Ippei Akita, H. Koike, Takahiro Mori

Published Feb 4, 2026• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Cryogenic CMOS (cryo-CMOS) quantum bit (qubit) control circuits are expected to overcome the interconnect complexity problem in large-scale quantum computers. However, since each qubit has a unique frequency for control, many power-hungry oscillators are needed to generate the frequencies at the cryogenic temperature stage of a refrigerator. In this article, to remove the oscillators from the refrigerator, we propose a cryo-CMOS signal selector (SS) consisting of two injection-locked oscillators that extract the specified frequency tone for qubit control from the multitone microwave signal. SS can reduce the power of signal generation for qubit control by 1/30. In addition, we propose a SS with a frequency-doubling function termed FDSS, based on the SS. FDSS can mitigate the local oscillator (LO)-RF leakage in microwave pulse generation for qubit control using direct conversion (DC). We demonstrate a cryo-CMOS DC-based qubit controller using FDSS. The measurement results show that the power dissipation and LO-RF leakage of the proposed qubit controller are reduced by 80% and 20dB, respectively, compared with conventional cryo-CMOS qubit controllers.

DOI
10.1109/jssc.2026.3658602

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Cryogenic CMOS (cryo-CMOS) quantum bit (qubit) control circuits are expected to overcome the interconnect complexity problem in large-scale quantum computers. However, since each qubit has a unique frequency for control, many power-hungry oscillators are needed to generate the frequencies at the cryogenic temperature stage of a refrigerator. In this article, to remove the oscillators from the refrigerator, we propose a cryo-CMOS signal selector (SS) consisting of two injection-locked oscillators that extract the specified frequency tone for qubit control from the multitone microwave signal. SS can reduce the power of signal generation for qubit control by 1/30. In addition, we propose a SS with a frequency-doubling function termed FDSS, based on the SS. FDSS can mitigate the local oscillator (LO)-RF leakage in microwave pulse generation for qubit control using direct conversion (DC). We demonstrate a cryo-CMOS DC-based qubit controller using FDSS. The measurement results show that the power dissipation and LO-RF leakage of the proposed qubit controller are reduced by 80% and 20dB, respectively, compared with conventional cryo-CMOS qubit controllers.
Cryogenic CMOS (cryo-CMOS) quantum bit (qubit) control circuits are expected to overcome the interconnect complexity problem in large-scale quantum computers. However, since each qubit has a unique frequency for control, many power-hungry oscillators are needed to generate the frequencies at the cryogenic temperature stage of a refrigerator. In this paper, to remove the oscillators from the refrigerator, we propose a cryo-CMOS signal selector consisting of two injection-locked oscillators that extract the specified frequency tone for qubit control from the multi-tone microwave signal. This can realize an efficient frequency-multiplexed qubit control system with 1/30 power consumption of the conventional systems.
Building a large-scale quantum computer requires the co-optimization of both the quantum bits (qubits) and their control electronics. By operating the CMOS control circuits at cryogenic temperatures (cryo-CMOS), and hence in close proximity to the cryogenic solid-state qubits, a compact quantum-computing system can be achieved, thus promising scalability to the large number of qubits required in a practical application. This work presents a cryo-CMOS microwave signal generator for frequency-multiplexed control of 4 × 32 qubits (32 qubits per RF output). A digitally intensive architecture offering full programmability of phase, amplitude, and frequency of the output microwave pulses and a wideband RF front end operating from 2 to 20 GHz allow targeting both spin qubits and transmons. The controller comprises a qubit-phase-tracking direct digital synthesis (DDS) back end for coherent qubit control and a single-sideband (SSB) RF front end optimized for minimum leakage between the qubit channels. Fabricated in Intel 22-nm FinFET technology, it achieves a 48-dB SNR and 45-dB spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) in a 1-GHz data bandwidth when operating at 3 K, thus enabling high-fidelity qubit control. By exploiting the on-chip 4096-instruction memory, the capability to translate quantum algorithms to microwave signals has been demonstrated by coherently controlling a spin qubit at both 14 and 18 GHz.
Extensive research on quantum mechanics in past decades has successfully paved the way towards the disruptive technology of quantum computing. A further step to the realization of a fault-tolerant scalable quantum computer is presenting challenges in the field of engineering. It necessitates a microsystem operating at 4K in a dilution refrigerator, which would be inevitable to control thousands or millions of qubits sitting at 10mK. There have been IC implementations of pulse modulators generating qubit-controlling microwave signals [1– 4]. The pulse modulation based on direct synthesis demonstrated feasibility of driving multiple qubits with frequency-division multiplexing (FDM) through one RF cable [1 – 3]. The first implementation of a full controller [1], which includes both read and write chains for spin qubits, demonstrated the highest level of integration. However, the previous work used external local oscillator (LO) sources for frequency synthesis. External feeding of LO requires precise matching; otherwise, a failure would cause leakage to the qubit driving output through PCB traces, resulting in AC-Stark shift of qubit state by unwanted tones at near-resonance. It becomes more problematic in FDM-based multi-qubit driving. Since the fidelity of qubit operations strongly relies on the quality of driving frequency, a low-noise LO generation by a phase-locked loop (PLL) is one of the most important factors [5]. The internal generation of LO gives additional benefits in superconducting qubit interface. It necessitates multiple LOs since the superconducting qubit uses microwave pulse driving for both read and write. To detect the state of a qubit through dispersive readout, the phase reflected from the readout resonator should be measured. Therefore, the driving pulses for the read and the write should be synchronized to a single reference timing. Using built-in PLLs sharing a single reference clock naturally solves this problem.
This article presents a cryo-CMOS quantum controller IC for superconducting qubits. The proposed globally synchronized clock system internally generates different local oscillator (LO) frequencies using multiple phase-locked loops (PLLs) driven by a common reference clock. It provides flexibility in spectral management as well as scalability for expansion to a large-scale quantum controller. The test chip includes two PLLs, four pulse modulator channels, and two receiver channels. Implemented chip in 40-nm CMOS shows full functionalities at 3.5 K. The designed pulse modulator circuits are verified with the specifications for expected fidelity of 99.99%.
Accurate and low-noise generation and amplification of microwave signals are required for the manipulation and readout of quantum bits (qubits). A fault-tolerant quantum computer operates at deep cryogenic temperatures (i.e., <; 100mK) and requires thousands of qubits for running practical quantum algorithms. Consequently, CMOS radio-frequency (RF) integrated circuits operating at cryogenic temperatures down to 4 K (Cryo-CMOS) offer a higher level of system integration and scalability for future quantum computers. In this paper, we extensively discuss the role, benefits, and constraints of Cryo-CMOS for qubits control and readout. The main characteristics of the CMOS transistors and their impacts on RF circuit designs are described. Furthermore, opportunities and challenges of low noise RF signal generation and amplification are investigated.
This article presents a fully integrated Cryo-CMOS system on chip (SoC) for quantum computing. The proposed SoC integrates a radio frequency (RF) pulse modulator for qubit state manipulation, a multi-tone signal generator and a coherent receiver for qubit state readout, and 22 DACs for high-speed voltage pulsing of qubit gates. By adopting frequency division multiplexing and direct digital synthesis (DDS), the RF pulse modulator can control up to 16 qubits over a single RF line, and the readout receiver can detect the state of up to six qubits simultaneously. The proposed SoC also integrates a microcontroller for low latency on-chip signal processing and increased flexibility in implementing quantum instruction sets. A detailed analysis of qubit-state readout fidelity and the impact of finite DAC resolution on two-qubit gate fidelity is also included in this article, together with an electrical specification summary. The SoC is implemented in Intel’s 22 nm FFL fin field-effect transistor (FinFET) process, and it is characterized both at room and 4 K temperatures. The performance of each specific block is measured, with the readout characterized in a loop-back configuration. Generation of the control signals required for a full Rabi oscillation experiment is also demonstrated. This article also describes the cryogenic thermalization techniques used to integrate the SoC in the dilution refrigerator and shows temperature measurements during operation.