Date of Award

Summer 8-23-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Electrical Engineering

First Advisor

Jinyuan Chen

Abstract

Astronomical observations and many physics experiments rely on cryogenic amplifiers for readout. Current sensitivity is limited by the noise figure of high-electronmobility transistor (HEMT) amplifiers, which have proven di!cult to decrease further in recent years. Traveling-wave kinetic-impedance parametric amplifiers (TKIPAs) are an emerging class of amplifiers which have the potential to substantially improve the sensitivity of microwave low-noise amplifiers (LNAs) while also accepting relatively high input powers and amplifying over a wide bandwidth. In this thesis, I present the design, modeling, and testing procedures for coplanar waveguide (CPW) TKIPAs developed by our group at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. Using these procedures I designed an amplifier meant to operate over 5-9 GHz with a maximum gain of 15 dB. Unfortunately, the fabricated prototype did unfortunately did not work due to incomplete etching. I also developed a design proposal for a W-band (75-110 GHz) amplifier using the same techniques as used for the lower frequency amplifier as well as a waveguide transition for this amplifier. The highly constrained design space suggests that interdigitated CPW TKIPAs using conventional dispersion engineering is not practical.

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