Original title: Programmable CMOS DAC Operating in Cryogenic Environments for Controlling Superconducting Qubits
A. Pelteku, D. Reitz, M. Covington, A. Frederick +14 · September 2026
Superconducting quantum computers rely on qubits, which need extreme cold and delicate electrical signals to function. Controlling these systems usually requires bulky wiring from the outside world. To solve this, researchers designed and tested a silicon microchip called a digital-to-analog converter that operates in these deep freeze cryogenic environments. This device turns digital commands into exact electrical current pulses. Digital controls set the signal height as well as its upward and downward slopes, while external triggers control how long each pulse lasts. The team built the chip using a standard 90 nm manufacturing process. Tests showed the device closely matches their design predictions, offering a flexible way to precisely steer magnetic flux into qubits or read out quantum circuits.
You are setting up a series of tiny water jets to direct floating leaves in a stream. Each jet needs a burst of water with exactly the right force and duration, but you are working in a deep freezer where all your usual nozzles freeze shut. The burst must be adjustable from outside. In this paper, the water jets are current pulses, the stream is a superconducting circuit inside a quantum processor, and the nozzle is a chip made from ordinary silicon that still works in the extreme cold.
Quantum computers need extremely cold temperatures and precise magnetic pulses to control their qubits. Most electronics fail in that cold, so custom cryogenic parts are expensive and bulky. This chip uses standard CMOS, the same kind in a phone, but re-engineered to work at cryogenic temperatures, making quantum control systems cheaper and easier to integrate.
The abstract reports test results of the DAC itself but does not demonstrate it controlling an actual qubit or integrating into a full quantum system. It also does not specify performance limits such as resolution, speed, or power consumption, or discuss yield or reliability over many thermal cycles. The design is shown in one 90 nm process; scalability to smaller nodes or multi-chip systems is not addressed.
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Programmable CMOS DAC Operating in Cryogenic Environments for Controlling Superconducting Qubits — A. Pelteku, D. Reitz, M. Covington et al.
Abstract licence: CC0
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper. This is a preprint, so it hasn't necessarily been peer reviewed.