The parametric amplifier is a crucial electronic device in cryogenic signal amplification, finding applications across various scientific and engineering domains, particularly in quantum computing. Unlike conventional amplifiers that rely on active components like transistors, parametric amplifiers utilize the properties of nonlinear passive devices to achieve signal amplification. Over the past decade, superconducting parametric amplifiers have become the primary system type in parametric amplification research. Leveraging Josephson Junction nonlinearity, these devices can amplify weak signals with high sensitivity while achieving noise temperatures at the quantum limit. However, these superconducting circuit systems are currently incompatible with CMOS technology. Ongoing research on CMOS parametric amplifiers reveals limited performance, with issues like narrow bandwidth or high noise temperatures. In previously published CMOS parametric amplifier structures, the reflection-type parametric amplifiers only utilize the nonlinear capacitance of a few CMOS varactors, resulting in a narrow system bandwidth (around a hundred MHz). To achieve bandwidth, the CMOS parametric amplifier suffers from high noise temperature (100 K). Therefore, this project aims to develop a broadband, low-noise CMOS parametric amplifier. Such a device will facilitate the readout of quantum computing platforms at higher integration levels. This project also aims to develop transmission-type CMOS parametric amplifiers compared to previously published reflection-type CMOS parametric amplifiers, as the former holds promise for achieving larger bandwidths (a few hundred MHz) with good noise performance (around 10 K).
Project is currently funded by: Other