Abstract
Abstract
Superconducting travelling wave parametric amplifiers
(TWPAs) exhibit great promise across various applications, owing to
their broadband nature, quantum-limited noise performance, and
high-gain operation. Whilst their construction is relatively simple,
particularly for thin-film-based TWPAs, challenges such as the
requirement for an extremely long transmission line, current
fabrication limitations, and their sensitivity to fabrication
tolerances, mean that their optimal operating conditions often
differ from those anticipated during the design stage. As a result,
manual fine-tuning of numerous operational parameters becomes
necessary to recover optimal performance; a process that is both
labour-intensive and time-consuming. This paper introduces an
automated methodology designed to significantly accelerate the
characterisation of a TWPA by several orders of magnitude without
requiring human intervention. Additionally, we have developed
metrics to condense the multitude of measured frequency responses of
the TWPA, obtained in data cube form, into an easily-understandable
format for further scientific interpretation. To demonstrate the
efficacy and speed of our methodology, we utilise an existing NbTiN
(niobium titanium nitride) TWPA as an example. This showcases the
capability of our approach to unveil both broad- and fine-scale
behaviours of the device, highlighting the importance of an
automated experimental setup for the in-depth investigation of TWPAs
for future developments.