A field-programmable-gate-array based high time resolution arbitrary timing generator with a time folding method utilizing multiple carry-chains

Abstract

A carry-chain based high time resolution arbitrary timing generator, which is fully implemented using field-programmable-gate-array resources, is reported in this paper. The arbitrary timing generator channel operates with two alternative carry-chains to achieve non-dead-time timing sequence generation, and a 45.3 ps time resolution with a 383 ps minimum pulse width can be obtained. The time resolution is further improved to 11.3 ps by employing four parallel carry-chains in a single arbitrary timing generator channel to realize “time folding.” The timing generator has a high time stability, and the time uncertainty is below 12 ps within a wide time range of 1 ns–108 ns. The arbitrary timing generator can be used to generate continuous spike timing sequences with a picosecond time resolution.

FPGA based hardware platform for trapped-ion-based multi-level quantum systems

“…On the other hand, three AWG channels are applied to one RF antenna and one MW antenna to realize three-level quantum logic gate in form of RF/MW transitions. Similar channel assignment can be applied for other ion species, such as 40 Ca + , 171 Yb + , etc. The required numbers of DDS channels and AWG channels will increase once mixed-species ions or scaled multi-level ions are applied.…”

“…[36] The RF antenna, microwave (MW) antenna and the acousto-optic modulator (AOM) are used to de-liver control signals from AWG channels or DDS RF channels to the ions for quantum state manipulation. [14] Pulse signals [35,[37][38][39][40] are commonly applied to trigger the control signal generation channels, and to switch the control signals before delivered to the ions. [41] On the other hand, a high speed counter is employed to count the fluorescence photons output from the ion-based quantum systems, [42] and the proportion integration differentiation (PID) controller is utilized to lock the frequency of the laser transmitting through the AOM.…”

“…We present a hardware platform which can be applied in the study of the trappedion-based multi-level systems, and the platform is implemented with reconfigurable field-programmable-gate-arrays (FPGA) which can provide favorable flexibility for the experimental studies. A multiple channel AWG, [33,34] DDS modules, pulse generators, [37][38][39][40] PID controllers and a high speed counter [33,34] are implemented on the platform. The AWG channels can be configured to output mixed signals with four different frequencies.…”