Release Notes

LabOne Q release 2.2 requires version 23.02 of LabOne. Please download the latest release of LabOne from the Zurich Instruments Download center and make sure to update the firmware of all your instruments through the GUI before using them together with this release. Since also the core Python API has been updated with this release, we recommend to use a fresh Python environment when installing LabOne Q 2.2. For instructions, see the section on installation.

Python 3.7 and 3.8 support is deprecated and will be removed in a future major release. It is recommended to upgrade to Python 3.9 or newer.

The descriptor keyword "instrument_list" has been replaced by "instruments" for consistency.

When using LabOne 23.02 with a version below 23.02.41959, playback on SHFSG and SHFQA channels may be misaligned by 4 ns. Contact us to get the latest patch release, in case it is not yet available on the website.

When running CW resonator spectroscopy with an SHFQA or SHFQC, it is necessary to set the port_delay calibration of the used acquire line to 250 ns. Have a look at the basic_experiments notebook for an example.

When delaying logical signal lines of type rf_signal via the delay_signal calibration property, all rf_signals on the same AWG must be set to the same delay.

When delaying logical signal lines on the SHFQA via the delay_signal calibration property, the delays for the measure and acquire line must be the same; the measure pulse delay is not added to the acquire pulse delay as on the UHFQA. We recommend to use port_delay for now.

When creating a section with very short content (below the device’s minimum waveform length), the compiler may fail to map the experiment to valid SeqC, and will generate an error. As a workaround, manually add delays to the sequence.

Added a demonstration of real-time feedback on SHFQC. This notebook emulates active qubit reset and uses two different readout pulses to simulate the different qubit states. In the example code, the state discrimination parameters are first calibrated using optimal integration weights and the result is then used to demonstrate real-time feedback based on an arbitrary pattern of simulated qubit states.

The next upcoming release will remove some API functionality:

Introduced a voltage_offset calibration property for logical signals of type rf_signal - use this to apply offsets to your single channel signals on the HDAWG.

Fixed an issue when deserializing pulse functionals without a mixer_type argument specified. When not specified, the mixer_type now defaults to IQ.

Fixed a bug where, when using software modulation, not all uploaded waveforms were properly modulated.

Fixed a bug where the raw readout results on the SHFQA depended on previous signals and did not always reflect the current state of the measurements.

Fixed a bug with phase increments of software modulated signals - the resolution of allowed increments was chosen too small, this will be a user accessible setting in the future.

Fixed a problem with the new output simulation not working properly for signals on SHFSG and SHFQA.

Added support for multiplexing of HW modulated signals on SHFSG. If your application would benefit from this feature, please contact us so that we can help you implement it.

Improved pulse library. Users can now easily extend the range of available pulse types by creating their own library. Our own standard library has been expanded as well, and will continue to grow in the future. A tutorial on our GitHub repository explains the most important features.

Pre-compensation is now configured via signal calibration. Delays are adapted accordingly.

Improved serialization and deserialization performance. Long arrays (e.g. waveforms) are now stored as binary blobs, reducing the size of generated JSON files.

The gaussian_q pulse shape has been removed. For generating a Gaussian pulse on the Q channel, use gaussian(amplitude=1j) instead.

Pinned required retworkx version to 0.11 after breaking changes had been introduced with 0.12.

Introduced an access token required for running LabOne Q during an initial managed beta phase. Please visit https://www.zhinst.com/ch/en/install-labone-q-today to get your access token today!

Fixed an issue with the assignment of center frequencies for the signal generator channels on an SHFQC

QCCS Software has been renamed to LabOne Q

LabOne Q now depends on LabOne release 22.08. We strongly recommend to perform a fresh install into a clean Python environment to ensure no clash of dependencies. Please also update the firmware of all devices to use to the newest version.

It is no longer possible to specify a too short repetition length when using RepetitionMode.CONSTANT, an exception will be raised in this case.

Hardware oscillator phase reset commands can now be issued for every iteration of sweep and averaging loops through the new parameter reset_oscillator_phase to make phases reproducible within each sweep step and averaging iteration. This new behavior is disabled by default.

The pulse length can now be swept as parameter of the Experiment.play command.

The parameters phase, set_oscillator_phase and increment_oscillator_phase of the Experiment.play command can now be swept.

The device setup now offers a new physical_channel_groups attribute. This new API complements logical_signal_groups, and allows more straightforward access to parameters of physical ports on each device, including when they are shared across multiple logical signals.

The CompiledExperiment class now has a publicly exposed API for serialization to JSON.

Setting do_simulation=True in session.run() no longer leads to an error.

The SHFQC can now be used as a standalone instrument, without the need for a PQSC.

State discrimination can be used on the SHFQA. To use, set the new threshold property on the logical signal used for data acquisition and set AcquisitionType.DISCRIMINATION within the acquire loop.

Using session.set(node_address, value) and session.get(node_address), it is now possible to set and read out the values of any instrument node from within a connected session directly.

Using session.devices[device_id] in a connected session returns a toolkit device object that enables to address the device directly using the same functionality know from the toolkit python package. For details on how to use the device object, please refer to the toolkit documentation at https://docs.zhinst.com/zhinst-toolkit/en/latest/

It is now possible to specify negative amplitudes in a sweep parameter

There are now two different ways to access the results object generated when running an experiment. The property session.results delivers a reference to the results object within the session and can be used e.g. from within user functions when reading out partial results. Calling session.get_results() returns a deep copy of the results object from within the session, to be used for saving the results. session.run(experiment) by default returns the reference via session.results.

In a near-time loop if any sweep steps exits with an error, it is now retried once and subsequently skipped at repeated error. The rest of the experiment may be executed normally.

For experiments that generate a lot of waveforms on the HDAWG it was possible in rare cases that waveform playback was not possible seamlessly due to memory restrictions on the instrument. This behavior is now detected by QCCS SW and reported as an error to the user, so the experiment can be redesigned.

When an error is encountered during a near-time loop, the affected step is repeated and the experiment does not fail.

Unintended gaps in the playback of pulses on the HDAWG are now detected and signaled to the user.

Waveform replacements of pulses works on all devices

SW modulation and HW modulation yield the same output on all devices

Mandatory first argument to the Experiment.call(…​) / Section.call(…​) was renamed from func to func_name - this need to be adjusted in user code, if passed as named and not positional argument

Session.run() now accepts both compiled and raw experiments. Session.run_all() has been deprecated and will be removed in a future version.

The output simulator does no longer run automatically when an experiment is executed. Trigger it manually by supplying do_simulation=True to Session.compile() or Session.run().

The output simulation can also be started without a session, by calling the CompiledExperiment.simulate_outputs() method.

The simulated output signals are now stored as part of the compiled experiment, and no longer directly as part of the results object. Find them in CompiledExperiment.output_signals with the same internal structure as previously.

The built-in result plotter (qccs.simple.Plotter) has been removed. For examples of how to access and plot the simulated output signals, see the example notebooks.

Mixer calibration on the HDAWG has been reworked and stabilized. This has not yet been extensively tested, feedback is welcome.

Improved reliability of real-time frequency sweeps on SHFQA

Added support for real-time frequency sweeps on SHFSG

Logging contains number of sequencer code lines and number of waveform samples that will be uploaded to instruments

Logging levels are now adjustable

Real-time frequency sweeps for resonator spectroscopy are now possible on SHFQA. Limitations apply, see below.

Small system support: A single HDAWG or SHFSG device can be used without a PQSC as a standalone device.

Waveforms in real-time loops can be exchanged to another one with the same length via a user function.

Integration kernels on SHFQA had inverted frequency compared to the readout pulse before, this has been corrected in this release - might require changes to user code

It is no longer possible to mix UHFQA and SHF instruments in the same experiment

Each near time execution step now has an automatic timeout implemented, based in the calculated real-time execution time of the step - this is to catch and prevent rare interrupts in execution

Support for standalone SHFSG operation

In a setup with an SHF instrument (SHFSG, SHFQA,…​), the HDAWG sampling rate is switched to 2.0 GSa/s, allowing for a tighter combined section grid

Consecutive Sections with signals on only one instrument can have arbitrary lengths now and are not bound to the common section grid