Direct Digital Synthesis (DDS) 

Enhanced Microwave Generation Performance

Thanks to DDS, the MW-FEM offers the best performance and some best-in-industry features: 

• Very high Spurious-Free Dynamic Range (SFDR) across the entire spectrum: Greater than 60 dBc across the entire frequency range of 0.05 to 10.5 GHz.  
• Broad bandwidth for flexible multiplexed frequency control: With high-quality DACs and simple DDS generation chain, MW-FEM supports a very wide bandwidth around the carrier frequency. With DDS cores, the module can play several carriers from the same port, each with up to 1.6 GHz bandwidth. 
• Phase coherence and control for the most advanced protocols: DDS has no phase-lock loops or analog mixers. A single clock is shared among ports, allowing for low-phase noise and ultra-high-phase coherence. DDS’s NCOs have controllable phase, enabling its full real-time control. 

DDS vs Alternative Solutions

Achieving precise control over multiple qubits with high phase coherence is essential for advanced quantum algorithms. However, traditional methods using analog mixers fall short. Their complex design limits phase coherence, while the numerous components introduce noise and hinder scaling to the thousands of control channels needed for large-scale quantum computers. 

DDS offers a clear solution. A simple generation chain minimizes noise and scales effortlessly to large numbers of control channels. It excels at generating multiple signals with perfect phase coherence, enabling precise control of many qubits simultaneously. When it comes to scaling towards useful quantum computers, every detail that may impair scalability matters. Read more on our comparison of microwave solutions below.