  We study the optimal design of switching measurements of small Josephson
junction circuits which operate in the macroscopic quantum tunnelling regime.
Starting from the D-optimality criterion we derive the optimal design for the
estimation of the unknown parameters of the underlying Gumbel type
distribution. As a practical method for the measurements, we propose a
sequential design that combines heuristic search for initial estimates and
maximum likelihood estimation. The presented design has immediate applications
in the area of superconducting electronics implying faster data acquisition.
The presented experimental results confirm the usefulness of the method. KEY
WORDS: optimal design, D-optimality, logistic regression, complementary log-log
link, quantum physics, escape measurements
