Simulation of low-noise amplifier with quantized ballistic nanowire channel

Abstract

The concept of a cryogenic low-noise amplifier (LNA) using quantized conduction in a 1D channel is proposed and explored through simulations. A MOSFET with a 1D channel (nanowire) will exhibit the formation of plateaus in the current due to sub-band quantization at temperatures of below about 100 K and low drive bias. Using a ballistic 1D top-of-the-barrier model, we show that the current plateaus significantly enhance the transconductance, enabling low noise and high gain at low DC power dissipation-key characteristics for LNA applications such as quantum computing. The results indicate that cryogenic 1D ballistic MOSFETs may offer a significant improvement in noise performance and power dissipation (40x reduction) over traditional devices for cryogenic applications with low input power, such as quantum computing.