III-V HEMTs for Cryogenic Low Noise Amplifiers

Abstract

The InP HEMT is the preferred transistor technology for cryogenic low-noise amplification from 1 GHz up to 200 GHz. The InP HEMT shows its superiority at temperatures 5 to 15 K and technology development must be made with knowledge about the special circumstances occurring in III- V materials and device operating under cryogenic conditions. We report on how to electrically stabilize the cryogenic two-finger HEMT at low temperature making it possible to design low-noise amplifiers with state of the art noise performance up to mm-wave. We also demonstrate recent progress on optimizing the InP HEMT for cryogenic low-noise amplifier operation below 1 mW dc power dissipation, of interest for qubit readout electronics.