A 300-µW Cryogenic HEMT LNA for Quantum Computing

Cha, Eunjung; Wadefalk, Niklas; Moschetti, Giuseppe; Pourkabirian, Arsalan; Stenarson, J.; Grahn, Jan

doi:10.1109/ims30576.2020.9223865

Cited by 30 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…This analysis indicates that self-heating will limit the minimum noise figure of HEMT amplifiers without decreases in power consumption or improvements in device thermal management that decrease the physical temperature of the gate. Recently, low noise amplifiers with power consumption of hundreds of µW were reported, a value that is several times lower than those of typical HEMTs [7]. While these reductions can reduce gate heating, the quartic dependence associated with phonon radiation means that even at 300 µW and T = 4 K, the gate temperature is predicted to be ∼ 10 K. Therefore, additional considerations of thermal management are necessary to reduce the excess thermal noise resulting from self-heating.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Characterization of self-heating in cryogenic high electron mobility transistors using Schottky thermometry

Choi

Esho

Gabritchidze

et al. 2021

Journal of Applied Physics

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Cryogenic low noise amplifiers based on high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) are widely used in applications such as radio astronomy, deep space communications, and quantum computing, and the physical mechanisms governing the microwave noise figure are therefore of practical interest. In particular, the contribution of thermal noise from the gate at cryogenic temperatures remains unclear owing to a lack of experimental measurements of thermal resistance under these conditions. Here, we report measurements of gate junction temperature and thermal resistance in a HEMT at cryogenic and room temperatures using a Schottky thermometry method. At temperatures ∼ 20 K, we observe a nonlinear trend of thermal resistance versus power that is consistent with heat dissipation by phonon radiation. Based on this finding, we consider heat transport by phonon radiation at the low-noise bias and liquid helium temperatures and estimate that the thermal noise from the gate is several times larger than previously assumed owing to self-heating. We conclude that without improvements in thermal management, self-heating results in a practical lower limit for microwave noise figure of HEMTs at cryogenic temperatures.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Microwave low noise amplifiers (LNAs) based on high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) are widely-used components of scientific instrumentation in fields such as radio astronomy [1,2], deep space communication [3], and quantum computing [4][5][6][7][8]. After decades of development [9][10][11][12][13],…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of self-heating in cryogenic high electron mobility transistors using Schottky thermometry

Choi

Esho

Gabritchidze

et al. 2021

Journal of Applied Physics

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“…Improvements in power consumption will be key to efficiently enable future quantum technologies. Recently, an ultra-low power 4-8 GHz InP HEMT cryogenic low-noise amplifier (LNA) has been demonstrated [91], achieving an average noise of 3.2 K with 23 dB gain, and an ultra-low power consumption of just 300 µW. Apart from InP HEMTs, Silicon-Germanium (SiGe) heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) are appearing as promising cryogenic LNAs candidates because they are compatible with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology, making them more appropriate for uses in large-scale systems.…”

Section: Low-noise Cryogenic Amplifiersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Propagating Quantum Microwaves: Towards Applications in Communication and Sensing

Casariego¹,

Cruzeiro²,

Gherardini³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…In fact, it typically requires an rf pump power P p ∼ −30 dBm (i.e. 1 µW), several orders of magnitude lower than the power requirement for a standard (∼ 10 mW [29]) or even state-of-the-art (300 µW [38]) HEMT. Note however that P p does not account for the dissipation along the pump line.…”

Section: Power Consumptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Performance of a Kinetic-Inductance Traveling-Wave Parametric Amplifier at 4 Kelvin: Toward an Alternative to Semiconductor Amplifiers

Malnou¹,

Aumentado²,

Vissers³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Most microwave readout architectures in quantum computing or sensing rely on a semiconductor amplifier at 4 K, typically a high-electron mobility transistor (HEMT). Despite its remarkable noise performance, a conventional HEMT dissipates several milliwatts of power, posing a practical challenge to scale up the number of qubits or sensors addressed in these architectures. As an alternative, we present an amplification chain consisting of a kinetic-inductance traveling-wave parametric amplifier (KI-TWPA) placed at 4 K, followed by a HEMT placed at 70 K, and demonstrate a chainadded noise TΣ = 6.3 ± 0.5 K between 3.5 and 5.5 GHz. While, in principle, any parametric amplifier can be quantum limited even at 4 K, in practice we find the KI-TWPA's performance limited by the temperature of its inputs, and by an excess of noise Tex = 1.9 K. The dissipation of the KI-TWPA's rf pump constitutes the main power load at 4 K and is about one percent that of a HEMT. These combined noise and power dissipation values pave the way for the KI-TWPA's use as a replacement for semiconductor amplifiers.

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A 300-µW Cryogenic HEMT LNA for Quantum Computing

Cited by 30 publications

References 10 publications

Characterization of self-heating in cryogenic high electron mobility transistors using Schottky thermometry

Characterization of self-heating in cryogenic high electron mobility transistors using Schottky thermometry

Propagating Quantum Microwaves: Towards Applications in Communication and Sensing

Performance of a Kinetic-Inductance Traveling-Wave Parametric Amplifier at 4 Kelvin: Toward an Alternative to Semiconductor Amplifiers

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