Stop spending six figures on quantum control hardware; a cheap, off-the-shelf FPGA can now hit 200-picosecond precision.
April 15, 2026
Original Paper
Sub-nanosecond control for spin-defect quantum memories with a low-cost, compact FPGA platform
arXiv · 2604.11743
The Takeaway
High-end quantum research usually requires prohibitively expensive pulse generators to control spin-defect memories. This work proves that a low-cost, off-the-shelf FPGA platform can achieve sub-nanosecond (200-picosecond) timing resolution. This effectively democratizes quantum memory research, bringing laboratory-grade control to the desktop for a fraction of the price. For the first time, scaling quantum networks doesn't require scaling a budget of millions in specialized hardware. It turns a niche laboratory capability into a scalable, affordable industrial component.
From the abstract
Dynamical decoupling techniques are widely used to characterize and control the environments of solid-state quantum defects, enabling solid-state quantum memories and nanoscale quantum sensors. However, resolution is often limited by the timing granularity of control hardware, which can undersample narrow spectral features and distort extracted parameters. Here, we demonstrate sub-nanosecond timing control on an inexpensive FPGA-based platform by extending the open-source QICK (Quantum Instrumen