Measuring station for Quantum Technology Integrated Components (QuanTICo-Lab)

• Subject Area: Electrical Engineering and Information Technology
• Term: Funded in 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 553449982

Radio frequency (RF) circuits in the millikelvin temperature range have become increasingly important recently due to a large number of applications in the field of quantum computing or quantum sensor technology. However, electronic devices, components and systems in this temperature range have so far been limited to a few types of superconducting passive structures (lines, resonators, Josephson junctions, etc.). However, the required interfaces and transmission lines needed to connect the millikelvin level to the higher temperature levels in or outside the cryostats are becoming more and more extensive as the complexity of the applications increases (especially in the field of quantum computing). At the same time, each of these lines represents a thermal load. The tolerable total sum of the thermal load is severely limited by the typically low cooling capacity of the cryostat. Therefore, extremely energy-saving active and passive electronic circuits in the temperature range between 10 and 500 mK are to be researched, in order to enable significantly better scalability of cryo applications through interface electronics in the immediate vicinity of quantum chips. A prerequisite for research into such circuits is the measurement and comprehensive characterization of all essential RF properties of electronic circuits, components and systems. The focus here is particularly on the temporal dynamics of fast electronic switches, which influence the reproducibility and quality of the switched RF signals. This is crucial for opening up the millikelvin temperature range for RF electronics, as active circuits are only switched on for an extremely short time when they are needed, in order to minimize power loss. A specially tailored measuring platform is to be created for this purpose, which will make it possible for the first time to characterize electronic RF circuits in pulse mode at millikelvin temperatures. This will provide measurement capabilities in the areas of network analysis, spectral analysis and time domain measurement technology for electrical and opto-electronic RF signals. A vector network analyzer for characterization in pulse mode (millisecond to nanosecond pulses), a particularly sensitive phase noise analyzer with measurement capability in pulse mode for recording absolute and additive phase noise and a cryostat configured for pulsed RF electronics characterization are combined in the platform. The applicants will also add high-end time domain measurement technology (oscilloscope and AWG), control electronics and photonic measurement technology (laser sources, OSA, detectors) to the requested platform.

• DFG Programme: Major Research Instrumentation
• Major Instrumentation: Messplatz zur Charakterisierung integrierter Komponenten der Quantentechnologie (QuanTICo-Lab)
• Instrumentation Group: 6380 Frequenzanalysatoren, Schwingungsanalysatoren
• Applicant Institution: Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
• Leader: Professor Dr.-Ing. Martin Vossiek