Design of a Quantum Microarchitecture Integrated Circuit

Abstract

If a practical quantum computer is to be built, it will not only need quantum programming languages and qubits, but hardware-software interfaces as well. These interfaces, also known as computer (micro)architectures are the key to creating a ’quantum stack’, where a programmer can directly execute programs onto quantum hardware. A functional quantum computer microarchitecture, the Central Controller-Light (CCLight), has been designed, implemented on a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), and verified to control superconducting qubits successfully. The next logical step, in hopes of creating a more scalable quantum computing system, is to take the CCLight and implement it as an Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC). In this thesis, the CCLight was built into an ASIC. It was shown that this approach yields the potential for higher performance and lower power for the microarchitecture core, and the groundwork for more robust and automatic testing of similar microarchitectures was laid out. Lastly, the lack of scalability in the original approach, wherein the processor transmits multi-byte codewords to the analog/RF hardware controlling the qubits, was revealed.