Josephson traveling-wave parametric amplifier based on low-intrinsic-loss coplanar lumped-element waveguide

Abstract

We present a Josephson traveling-wave parametric amplifier (JTWPA) based on a low-loss coplanar lumped-element waveguide architecture. By employing open-stub capacitors and Manhattan-pattern junctions, our device achieves an insertion loss below 1~dB up to 12~GHz. We introduce windowed sinusoidal modulation for phase matching, demonstrating that a smooth transition in the impedance-modulation strength effectively suppresses intrinsic gain ripples. Using Tukey-windowed modulation with 8\% impedance variation, we achieve 20\text{--}23-dB~gain over 5-GHz bandwidth under ideal matching conditions. In a more practical circuit having impedance mismatches, the device maintains 17\text{--}20-dB gain over 4.8-GHz bandwidth with an added noise of 0.18~quanta above standard quantum limit at 20-dB gain and $-99$-dBm saturation power, while featuring zero to negative backward gain below the band-gap frequency.

23 pages, 13 figures