Quantum error correction experiments on a 17-qubit superconducting processor. Part I: Optimized calibration strategies.*

This three-part series focuses on the realization of various quantum error correction (QEC) codes on a 17-transmon device designed for the distance-3 surface code. The constituent weight-2 to weight-4 stabilizer measurements for these codes are suboptimally constructed if simply compiled from one- and two-qubit gates and single-qubit readout tuned in isolation. In this first part, we present highly parallelized and orthogonal calibration methods for optimally calibrating the stabilizer measurements as parallel block units. This approach improves performance as it absorbs coherent phase errors due to residual ZZ coupling and flux crosstalk.