IEEE CEDA Seminar - Beyond Connectivity: Co-Designing Modular Quantum Computers

Scaling quantum computers requires overcoming fundamental challenges in qubit connectivity, gate fidelity, and physical realizability. While increased connectivity can reduce circuit routing overhead and execution time, it also introduces competing constraints, including frequency crowding, unwanted interactions, and spatial crowding. Addressing these challenges requires a holistic approach that considers quantum device physics, architectural topology, native gate operations, and compilation together. In this talk, I will discuss our research on hardware-software co-design for modular superconducting quantum computers, with an emphasis on architectures employing parametrically driven nonlinear couplers. Our work explores the design of modular connectivity topologies, hardware-aware quantum instruction sets, and compilation techniques that exploit native physical interactions to improve circuit performance and fidelity. I will highlight results from recent publications on topology optimization, gate synthesis, and fidelity-aware transpilation, as well as late-breaking results investigating the physical constraints and scalability of modular quantum architectures. Prof. A.K. Jones, IEEE Fellow Klaus Schroder Endowed Professor for Engineering Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department Chair Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Sponsored by IEEE Council on EDA PA Chapter