Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2024-01-24
Buyer: University of Copenhagen
Country: DK
Contract type: Supplies
Procedure: Negotiated without a prior call for competition
CPV classification: 31711422
Estimated value: 9000000 DKK

Technical requirements: The Niels Bohr Institute is part of the Faculty of SCIENCE at the University of Copenhagen. The Niels Bohr Institute has a 100 year long tradition of excellence within science, in particular within the area of quantum physics. The institute was inaugurated on March 3, 1921, by Professor Niels Bohr. We are approx. 430 researchers, 70 administrative and technical staff, 100 PhD students and 400 students. The European Physical Society has declared the Niels Bohr Institute a Historic Site of great international importance for the development of physics and research.
The intended procurement will be used to operate superconducting qubits located within cryostats at state-of-the-art performance levels. The product will be used to implement and calibrate quantum operations on two separate superconducting quantum processors and will enable the development of new methods for fast measurements, benchmarking, calibration and quantum algorithm execution. fpga-based programmability, live signal generation, feedback speed and open-source control software are central for the products intended use.
The Quantum Machines OPX1000 has a unique combination of capabilities which are crucial for the intended use:
•	Comprehensive library of hardware-optimized mathematical functions implementable on the fpga, e.g., for implementation of real-time Bayesian estimations or neural networks
•	Open-source library of programs for typical superconducting qubit control and calibration schemes including 2-qubit randomized benchmarking, active qubit reset and optimal readout demodulation weight calibration
•	Generation of pulse sequences containing an unlimited number of pulses, potentially with varying amplitudes, frequencies, phases, or durations
•	Control flow and mid-experiment decision making on hardware time, such as conditioning or modifying pulse generation based on measurement results, realizing feedback latency on timescales suitable for the demanding requirements of quantum experiments
Relevant patents include: US10637449B1, US11126926B1, US11088679B2, US11043939B1, US10931267B1, US11115012B2.
The required hardware must be compatible with our current python-based control software, which constitutes the primary interface for day-to-day experimental operation of our superconducting quantum devices. This software was developed in-house and has required over a year of dedicated development by multiple researchers. The software is built directly on top of the QUA library and so cannot be used with other products that are not directly compatible with QUA.
•	Arbitrary control of sweep parameters utilizing fpga-based control to perform parameter sweeps without time overhead, including parallel sweeping of multiple parameters
•	Choice of arbitrary combinations of sweep axes of arbitrary dimensions without manual reprogramming of the pulse sequence program
•	Possibility of programming new custom sequences, with access to fgpa logic, including conditional statements, without need to implement or understand low-level fpga-based programming
•	Real-time data-analysis and visualization during experiment execution based on preliminary measurement results
•	Adaptive automatic experiment termination based on arbitrary logic performed on running analysis results
•	Availability of typical subroutines such as active qubit reset or mid-experiment frequency tracking on arbitrary sequences


Winner: Quantum Machines
Award value: 9000000