I-Corps: Translation Potential of Hybrid Photonic/Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) Control Architecture for Scalable Superconducting Qubit Systems

This I-Corps project is based on the development of a new control system that uses photonics and low-power electronics to operate superconducting quantum computers. Current quantum processors depend on dense bundles of electrical cables and power-hungry hardware to deliver precise signals into ultra-cold refrigerators. This creates major limitations in wiring, heat, calibration, and reliability as systems grow toward the thousands of physical qubits (quantum bit; the basic unit of information in quantum computing) needed for useful error-corrected computing. This technology replaces much of this cable-heavy control path with optical fiber, low-power electronics inside the refrigerator, and built-in monitoring of the signals delivered to the qubits. This may allow more qubits to operate within the limited space and cooling capacity of a cryogenic system while improving the consistency and diagnosability of qubit control. Applications for this technology include controller modules, licensed photonic and electronic circuit blocks, and integration services for quantum hardware developers, research laboratories, and control-system suppliers. This technology may accelerate practical quantum computing for molecular and materials simulation, drug and catalyst discovery, complex optimization, energy-system planning, and security-related computation, while strengthening advanced quantum hardware. This I-Corps project utilizes experiential learning coupled with first-hand investigation of the industry ecosystem to assess the translation potential of a hybrid photonic/Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) controller architecture for superconducting qubits. The architecture distributes optical pulse templates through fiber to a 4 Kelvin cryogenic control layer, where a low-speed digital-to-analog converter programs a four-port microring-resonator modulator, a photodiode converts the optical signal into an electrical envelope, sample-and-hold circuitry forms the required control waveform, and a selected local-oscillator tone upconverts the waveform to the qubit frequency. A complementary microring output provides an in-fridge monitoring path for calibration, drift detection, and control-signal verification. This technology combines reduced wiring and thermal load with local programmability and signal observability. Proof-of-principle has been demonstrated at room-temperature using discrete components and a microring-resonator chip, together with architecture-level modeling indicating sub-milliwatt-class active power per channel, substantial waveform-memory reduction, and controller-induced error below a 0.01% target. Users may benefit from lower-power, more scalable, and more diagnosable quantum-control infrastructure. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.