Assessing the Impact of Low Resolution Control Electronics on Quantum Neural Network Performance

Fuente: arXiv
Salvato in:
Dettagli Bibliografici
Autori principali: Bhattacharjee, Rupayan, Sarkar, Rohit Sarma, Abadal, Sergi, Almudever, Carmen G., Alarcon, Eduard
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
Soggetti:
Accesso online:
Tags: Aggiungi Tag
Nessun Tag, puoi essere il primo ad aggiungerne!!
_version_ 1866915769512624128
author Bhattacharjee, Rupayan
Sarkar, Rohit Sarma
Abadal, Sergi
Almudever, Carmen G.
Alarcon, Eduard
author_facet Bhattacharjee, Rupayan
Sarkar, Rohit Sarma
Abadal, Sergi
Almudever, Carmen G.
Alarcon, Eduard
contents Scaling quantum computers requires tight integration of cryogenic control electronics with quantum processors, where Digital-to-Analog Converters (DACs) face severe power and area constraints. We investigate quantum neural network (QNN) training and inference under finite DAC resolution constraints, evaluating two QNN architectures across four diverse datasets (MNIST, Fashion-MNIST, Iris, Breast Cancer). Pre-trained QNNs achieve accuracy nearly indistinguishable from infinite-precision baselines when deployed on quantum systems with 6-bit DAC control electronics, exhibiting characteristic elbow curves with diminishing returns beyond 3-5 bits depending on the dataset. However, training QNNs directly under quantization constraints reveals gradient deadlock below 12-bit resolution, where parameter updates fall below quantization step sizes, preventing training entirely. We introduce temperature-controlled stochastic quantization that overcomes this limitation through probabilistic parameter updates, enabling successful training at 4-10 bit resolutions. Remarkably, stochastic quantization not only matches but frequently exceeds infinite-precision baseline performance across both architectures and all datasets. Our findings demonstrate that low-resolution control electronics (4-10 bits) need not compromise QML performance while enabling substantial power and area reduction in cryogenic control systems, presenting significant implications for practical quantum hardware scaling and hardware-software co-design of QML systems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_04983
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Assessing the Impact of Low Resolution Control Electronics on Quantum Neural Network Performance
Bhattacharjee, Rupayan
Sarkar, Rohit Sarma
Abadal, Sergi
Almudever, Carmen G.
Alarcon, Eduard
Quantum Physics
Emerging Technologies
Scaling quantum computers requires tight integration of cryogenic control electronics with quantum processors, where Digital-to-Analog Converters (DACs) face severe power and area constraints. We investigate quantum neural network (QNN) training and inference under finite DAC resolution constraints, evaluating two QNN architectures across four diverse datasets (MNIST, Fashion-MNIST, Iris, Breast Cancer). Pre-trained QNNs achieve accuracy nearly indistinguishable from infinite-precision baselines when deployed on quantum systems with 6-bit DAC control electronics, exhibiting characteristic elbow curves with diminishing returns beyond 3-5 bits depending on the dataset. However, training QNNs directly under quantization constraints reveals gradient deadlock below 12-bit resolution, where parameter updates fall below quantization step sizes, preventing training entirely. We introduce temperature-controlled stochastic quantization that overcomes this limitation through probabilistic parameter updates, enabling successful training at 4-10 bit resolutions. Remarkably, stochastic quantization not only matches but frequently exceeds infinite-precision baseline performance across both architectures and all datasets. Our findings demonstrate that low-resolution control electronics (4-10 bits) need not compromise QML performance while enabling substantial power and area reduction in cryogenic control systems, presenting significant implications for practical quantum hardware scaling and hardware-software co-design of QML systems.
title Assessing the Impact of Low Resolution Control Electronics on Quantum Neural Network Performance
topic Quantum Physics
Emerging Technologies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.04983