Parametrically Enhanced Delay Line with Monolithically Integrated Time-varying Transmission Lines (TVTL)

The insertion loss of on-chip passive components such as delay lines, phase shifters, inductors, and filters attributed by the finite conductivity of metal layers often limits their performance. Moreover, the insertion loss of a passive component determines its noise figure and degrades the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of a system. In this paper, a novel low-loss and low-noise delay line is proposed with the exponential parametric amplification effect in time-varying transmission lines (TVTLs). It is shown in the experiment that zero insertion loss or even small gain can be achieved in a delay line with TVTL. Furthermore, the noise figure of it is generally better than that of its passive counterpart.