Quantum system engineers working at milli-Kelvin temperatures are faced with the difficulties and inconveniences of long development cycles. The major factors leading to lengthy and costly development cycles include:

  • Complicated fabrication process with multiple additive and subtractive steps required to produce a superconducting or spin qubit device
  • Time-consuming wire bonding and expensive packaging processes prior to cryogenic test and measurement
  • Testing devices at < 15 mK requires dilution refrigeration (DR) and long cooldown times exceeding 30 hours
  • Qubits that fail final deployment due to poor performance or parameter offsets require warming up the system and loading a new device

FormFactor and Keysight Technologies have collaborated to develop an integrated measurement solution for Pre-Screening Qubit Devices that allows quantum system engineers to eliminate wire-bonding and packaging from cryogenic test processes. Additionally, the solution will provide critical qubit performance parameters at 50 mK to enable streamlined deployment in their existing dilution refrigerators at 20 mK to enhance development cycle times by more than 2X.

The joint integrated measurement solution is fully optimized for qubit pre-characterization applications which eliminates the time-consuming process of selecting each individual piece of equipment and integrating it. The system returns initial qubit parameters to accurately pass/reject devices prior to final deployment in a dilution refrigerator.

An example of a qubit pre-characterization routine implemented on the Model 106 integrated solution is by a leading superconducting circuit developer, Seeqc. They are developing the first digital quantum computing platform for global businesses that leverages both classical and quantum technology through a unique superconducting chip scale architecture. Seeqc has been able to speed up their development cycle more than 2X by pre-characterizing their superconducting devices with the Model 106 Integrated Measurement Solution. The pre-characterization measurements allow Seeqc to ensure only the best performing devices are deployed in the DR. The pre-characterization measurements on the qubits also allow Seeqc to forward this information to the deployment device which has reduced the time spent on setup and calibration of the qubits in the deployment cryostat.

The FormFactor Model 106 integrated measurement solution utilizes Keysight’s Labber Quantum software and the Keysight PXI-based quantum control solution to provide a turnkey cryogenic system with quick-cooldowns to less than 50 mK in approximately 16 hours. The system is used to rapidly characterize and screen superconducting or spin qubit devices prior to deployment.

For more information on this jointly developed integrated measurement solution for advanced quantum development, download the brochure – Superconducting and Spin Qubit Pre-Screening (PDF).