Quantum Optimal Control (QOC) frameworks are powerful tools for compiling quantum circuits into low-latency hardware control pulses, but recent studies suffer from two critical limitations: lengthy compilation times and potential logical inconsistencies from flawed gate grouping strategies. In this work, we introduce d'ArQ, a novel QOC framework that solves these challenges. (i) We identify and resolve the causality problem, a flaw in greedy partitioning that can produce invalid schedules, by introducing a DAG-based grouping algorithm with assigning mergeability to each group so that it guarantees logical correctness. (ii) To mitigate compilation times, we use a pre-computed library of pulses derived from random unitary matrices to provide a high-quality random initialization for pulse optimization. (iii) Diverging from prior work based on GRAPE, d'ArQ is built on the GOAT algorithm. We demonstrate that the choice of analytic basis is a critical hyperparameter and introduce a heuristic cost model to dynamically select the optimal basis for each synthesis task, improving pulse performance. When evaluated against the state-of-the-art baseline PAQOC on a realistic, inhomogeneous hardware model, d'ArQ demonstrates superior performance. Notably, d'ArQ reduces circuit latency up to 22.8% and compilation time up to 56.8%, establishing a more robust and physically realistic path for circuit compilation.
Quantum Optimal Control (QOC) frameworks are powerful tools for compiling quantum circuits into low-latency hardware control pulses, but recent studies suffer from two critical limitations: lengthy compilation times and potential logical inconsistencies from flawed gate grouping strategies. In this work, we introduce d'ArQ, a novel QOC framework that solves these challenges. (i) We identify and resolve the causality problem, a flaw in greedy partitioning that can produce invalid schedules, by introducing a DAG-based grouping algorithm with assigning mergeability to each group so that it guarantees logical correctness. (ii) To mitigate compilation times, we use a pre-computed library of pulses derived from random unitary matrices to provide a high-quality random initialization for pulse optimization. (iii) Diverging from prior work based on GRAPE, d'ArQ is built on the GOAT algorithm. We demonstrate that the choice of analytic basis is a critical hyperparameter and introduce a heuristic cost model to dynamically select the optimal basis for each synthesis task, improving pulse performance. When evaluated against the state-of-the-art baseline PAQOC on a realistic, inhomogeneous hardware model, d'ArQ demonstrates superior performance. Notably, d'ArQ reduces circuit latency up to 22.8% and compilation time up to 56.8%, establishing a more robust and physically realistic path for circuit compilation.
Near-term intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices are subject to considerable noise and short coherence time. Consequently, it is critical to minimize circuit execution latency and improve fidelity. Traditionally, each basis gate of a transpiled circuit is decoded into a fixed episode of the device control pulses. Recent studies investigate the merged pulse generation method for customized gates through quantum optimal control (QOC). In this work, we propose PAQOC, a novel QOC framework that can (i) exploit an augmented program-aware (APA) basis gate set for the tradeoff between compilation time and circuit performance, (ii) prune the search space based on a criticality-centric analytical model and experiment observations we learned from 150 benchmarks. Evaluations using seventeen applications show that PAQOC can achieve an average 54% reduction of the circuit latency, on average 43% reduction in compilation overhead, and a 1.27× improvement in fidelity. PAQOC is available on GitHub1.
In the last decades, we have witnessed the rapid growth of Quantum Computing. In the current Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) era, the capability of a quantum machine is limited by the decoherence time, gate fidelity and the number of Qubits. Current quantum computing applications are far from the real “quantum supremacy” due to the fragile physical Qubits, which can only be entangled for a few microseconds. Recent works use quantum optimal control to reduce the latency of quantum circuits, thereby effectively increasing quantum volume. However, the key challenge of this technique is the large overhead due to long compilation time. In this paper, we propose AccQOC, a comprehensive static/dynamic hybrid workflow to transform gate groups (equivalent to matrices) to pulses using QOC (Quantum Optimal Control) with a reasonable compilation time budget. AccQOC is composed of static pre-compilation and accelerated dynamic compilation. After the quantum program is mapped to the quantum circuit with our heuristic mapping algorithm considering crosstalk, we leverage static pre-compilation to generate pulses for the frequently used groups to eliminate the dynamic compilation time for them. The pulse is generated using QOC with binary search to determine the latency. For a new program, we use the same policy to generate groups, thus avoid incurring overhead for the “covered” groups. The dynamic compilation deals with “un-covered” groups with accelerated pulse generation. The key insight is that the pulse of a group can be generated faster based on the generated pulse of a similar group. We propose to reduce the compilation time by generating an ordered sequence of groups in which the sum of similarity among consecutive groups in the sequence is minimized. We can find the sequence by constructing a similarity graph - a complete graph in which each vertex is a gate group and the weight of an edge is the similarity between the two groups it connects, then construct a Minimum Spanning Tree (MST) for SG. With the methodology of AccQOC, we reached a balanced point of compilation time and overall latency. The results show that accelerated compilation based on MST achieves 9.88× compilation speedup compared to the standard compilation of each group while maintaining an average 2.43× latency reduction compared with gate-based compilation.
QASMTrans is a lightweight, high-performance, C++-based quantum compiler that bridges abstract quantum algorithms to device-level control and is designed for just-in-time (JIT) deployment on QPU testbeds with tightly integrated FPGAs or CPUs. We focus on achieving fast transpilation times on circuits of interest, we find more than 100x faster compilation than Qiskit in some circuits with similar circuit quality, enabling transpilation of large, high-depth circuits in seconds. Unlike existing tools, QASMTrans offers end-to-end device-pulse compilation and direct quantum control integration with QICK, closing the gap between logical circuits and hardware control enabling closed-loop optimization. QASMTrans supports latency-aware Application-tailored Gate Sets (AGS) at the pulse level, identifying high-impact gate sequences on the circuit critical path and synthesizing optimized pulse schedules using pre-defined robust circuit ansatz. Validated through integrated QuTiP pulse-level simulation, this is found to significantly reduce execution latency and can improve final-state fidelity by up to 12% in some tested circuits. QASMTrans further implements device-aware, noise-adaptive transpilation that uses device calibration data for circuit placement on high-quality qubits and can focus on the circuit critical path to reduce transpilation-pass time while maintaining comparable fidelity. Additionally, it introduces circuit space sharing via calibration-aware device partitioning, enabling concurrent execution of multiple circuits or shots on a single QPU. Moreover, QASMTrans is entirely self-contained and has no external library dependencies, making it easy for practical deployment. By combining fast compilation, pulse-level control, and noise-aware optimization, QASMTrans enables real-time adaptive algorithms such as ADAPT-VQE and ADAPT-QAOA.
In this paper we propose EPOC, an efficient pulse generation framework for quantum circuits that combines ZX-Calculus, circuit partitioning, and circuit synthesis to accelerate pulse generation. Unlike previous works that focus on generating pulses from unitary matrices without exploring equivalent representations, EPOC employs a finer granularity approach by grouping quantum gates and decomposing the resulting unitary matrices into smaller ones using synthesis techniques. This enables increased parallelism and decreased latency in quantum pulses. EPOC also continuously optimizes the circuit by identifying equivalent representations, leading to further reductions in circuit latency while minimizing the computational overhead associated with quantum optimal control. We introduce circuit synthesis into the workflow of quantum optimal control for the first time and achieve a 31.74% reduction in latency compared to previous work and a 76.80% reduction compared to the gate-based method for creating pulses. The approach demonstrates the potential for significant performance improvements in quantum circuits while minimizing computational overhead.
QASMTrans is a lightweight, high-performance, C++-based quantum compiler that bridges abstract quantum algorithms to device-level control and is designed for just-in-time (JIT) deployment on QPU testbeds with tightly integrated FPGAs or CPUs. We focus on achieving fast transpilation times on circuits of interest, we find more than 10× faster compilation than Qiskit in some circuits with similar circuit quality, enabling transpilation of large, high-depth circuits in seconds. Unlike existing tools, QASMTrans offers end-to-end device-pulse compilation and direct quantum control integration with QICK, closing the gap between logical circuits and hardware control enabling closed-loop optimization. QASMTrans supports latency-aware Application-tailored Gate Sets (AGS) at the pulse level, identifying high-impact gate sequences on the circuit critical path and synthesizing optimized pulse schedules using pre-defined robust circuit ansatz. Validated through integrated QuTiP pulse-level simulation, this is found to significantly reduce execution latency and can improve final-state fidelity by up to 12% in some tested circuits. QASMTrans further implements device-aware, noise-adaptive transpilation that uses device calibration data for circuit placement on high-quality qubits and can focus on the circuit critical path to reduce transpilation-pass time while maintaining comparable fidelity. Additionally, it introduces circuit space sharing via calibration-aware device partitioning, enabling concurrent execution of multiple circuits or shots on a single QPU. Moreover, QASMTrans is entirely self-contained and has no external library dependencies, making it easy for practical deployment. By combining fast compilation, pulse-level control, and noise-aware optimization, QASMTrans enables real-time adaptive algorithms such as ADAPT-VQE and ADAPT-QAOA. Source code: http://github.com/pnnl/qasmtrans
The rapid advancement of Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) devices has driven the need for efficient design automation tools that can translate complex engineering models into executable quantum circuits. This study explores the development of automated quantum circuit design frameworks focused on gate optimization and noise-aware compilation, enabling practical quantum computation for engineering applications such as optimization, simulation, and control systems. Traditional circuit design methods often fail to account for hardware constraints, decoherence, and gate infidelity, which significantly affect computational accuracy on NISQ devices. To address these challenges, this research introduces a hybrid automation approach combining quantum transpilation, variational circuit pruning, and error-aware synthesis algorithms to enhance circuit reliability and scalability. The framework integrates quantum-classical co-design principles to optimize both logical and physical circuit layers, leveraging hardware-specific calibration data to adapt compilation strategies dynamically. Through simulations and benchmark analysis, the proposed system demonstrates significant improvements in quantum resource utilization, error mitigation, and gate depth reduction compared to conventional compilation methods. This work underscores the growing importance of design automation in quantum engineering, where algorithmic efficiency must be harmonized with physical constraints to realize functional and scalable quantum workflows. By establishing a methodology for gate-level optimization and noise-adaptive design, the study contributes to bridging the gap between theoretical quantum algorithms and real-world engineering implementations within the NISQ computing era.