An efficient method for drastic reducing the power consumption of the intermediate frequency (RF-/microwave) amplifiers for multi-channel devices (such as bolometer arrays, SIS matrixes) is theoretically grounded and experimentally demonstrated. The relevant technique is based on the HEMTs with excessive-high (initially, in saturated I-V region) cut-off-frequency and sacrificing their gain after changing to linear (unsaturated) I-V region, where transistor operates with very low drain voltages (10…100 mV) and current (30…100 mA). According to the approach the concept of low-noise amplifier on commercially available pHEMT (exactly, Agilent ATF36055) is proposed. One-stage amplifiers with associated gain of 10…20 dB were designed with emphasis on minimizing the power consumption and tested at ambient temperatures from room level to 300 mK. It has been founded that the power consumption of a few microwatts may be achieved at room temperature at frequencies up to L-band. The power consumption minimum level of 950 nanowatt per 10-dB-gain-version of the amplifier (frequency band 490…510 MHz) has been obtained at 300 mK ambient temperature. That is at least the order of magnitude better then was the case to date. The obtained both theoretical and experimental results permit predicting the feasibility to brought to the “nanowatt supply level” for RF/microwave amplifiers on InP HEMTs (with cut-off-frequency of hundreds gigahertz) and forward-looking InSb HEMTs.

Via comparison with state of-the-art amplifiers, it is confirmed that proposed technique has a high potential to design amplifiers especially for multi-channel ultra-deep-cooled (in future – down to 1 mK) cryoelectronic devices when the DC power consumption budget is critical requirement for the system.

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