Solid-State Cooling Technology for Cryogenic Devices

Informations projet

SoCool

N° de convention de subvention: 101113086

DOI

10.3030/101113086

Date de signature de la CE 20 Mars 2023

Date de début 1 Juin 2023

Date de fin 31 Août 2026

Financé au titre de

• The European Innovation Council (EIC)

Coût total

€ 1 298 411,00

Contribution de l’UE

€ 1 298 411,00

Coordonné par

TEKNOLOGIAN TUTKIMUSKESKUS VTT OY
Finland

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SoCool (Solid-State Cooling Technology for Cryogenic Devices)

Période du rapport: 2023-06-01 au 2024-05-31

Résumé du contexte et des objectifs généraux du projet

Temperatures below 1 kelvin are highly beneficial, if not prerequisite, to several important technologies that are key to development in present and upcoming decades. Examples include superconducting electronics such as x-ray calorimeters, qubits, single-photon detectors and RF amplifiers. In spite of the typically small size of the elements to be refrigerated, the techniques commonly used to access sub-kelvin temperatures are expensive and cumbersome, due to intrinsic need of circulating the rare 3He cryogen or the heavy magnets required for their refrigeration. These limitations have been an obstacle to broad-scale deployment of sub-kelvin electronics and photonics.

We aim to develop a cooler system that can reach performance comparable with dilution refrigeration, without need of 3He and at a fraction of the mass and cost. Our vision entails new application avenues in the fields of quantum technology, material analysis and surveying, radiation detection, cosmology, and astronomy. We expect significant impact for airborne or space-oriented applications, because of the breakthrough reduction in payload mass and complexity allowed by our cooling solution. The pursued electronic cooling solution resembles cascaded Peltier (thermoelectric) coolers, which are off-the-shelf components for room temperature operation. However, it has turned out extremely difficult to come up with scalable electronic cooling solutions for cryogenic temperatures.

Travail effectué depuis le début du projet jusqu’à la fin de la période considérée dans le rapport et principaux résultats atteints jusqu’à présent

Key activities of SoCool during the first year include developing technology building blocks for the project demonstrator and building understanding on the commercial landscape of the cooler solution. For the former the key milestones are 3D assembly and thermal resistance with-in and efficient Nb-based on-chip refrigetation above 2 K, which bridges the gap between electronic and pulse tube refrigerators.

Progrès au-delà de l’état des connaissances et impact potentiel prévu (y compris l’impact socio-économique et les conséquences sociétales plus larges du projet jusqu’à présent)

During the first year we have investigated chip-to-chip thermal resistance in a 3D assemblies at cryogenic temperatures for the first time. This quantitative work is important not only for micro-refrigerators but, in general, for thermal management of different cryogenic electronics and phonics from classical to quantum applications. We also have developed a scalable Al–AlOx–Nb superconducting tunnel junction cooler technology that can deliver electronic cooling power of ∼mW/mm2, which was enough to demonstrate significant electron temperature reduction of 0.82 K against the phonon bath at 2.4 K (34% relative cooling). Our work shows that the key material of integrated superconducting circuits–niobium–enables powerful cryogenic refrigerator technology.

a) Typical current dry dilution refrigerator and small ~1 cm system/circuit it is used for.