About
Low Noise Factory (LNF) designs and produces the world’s best low noise microwave amplifiers. These amplifiers are used near absolute zero –cryogenic– temperatures for space exploration, quantum computing, radio astronomy, and for various ground-breaking scientific endeavours where extreme sensitivity is paramount. Our amplifiers help receive signals from the most distant man-made object from Earth, the Voyager 1 space probe, help read quantum states in the fastest quantum computers, and help make MRI scanners work in medical institutions.
We are a Swedish company established in 2005, located in Göteborg, where we both develop and manufacture our products.
Low Noise Factory’s state-of-the-art amplifiers are far ahead of competition. We invest heavily in research and collaborate closely with academic and scientific communities to keep advancing our technology further and further. Our success is the result of passion for science and precision, advanced by devotion and curiosity. As explorers on the technological frontier, our aim is to keep making the impossible possible.
Low Noise Factory’s technology achieves big things while being extremely small.
The roughly 20-step manufacturing process requires meticulous attention to detail and thoroughness, and we have mastered both.
Despite the invisibly small componentry, our amplifiers are built to withstand some of the most extreme of conditions.
Our transistors are produced in a world-class cleanroom. They are processed using electron beam and laser lithography. Precision in our transistors is measured in nanometers and single layers of atoms, a level of accuracy that decides the quality of the end product.
All amplifiers we build for cryogenic use are tested at 4 K before being delivered to customers. Sample LNAs are handpicked to go through excruciating experiments such as being cooled down to near absolute zero 100 times during a testing. After all, they have to perform well at 4 K not only once, but every single time.
With large improvements on the horizon, the field of low noise amplification is opening up new possibilities for future products, creating completely new uses for the technology, much of what we can not even yet imagine.
The founder and CEO of Low Noise Factory, Niklas Wadefalk, holds a degree in electrical engineering from Chalmers University of Technology in Göteborg, Sweden, and is a prolific author in the scientific field. Niklas’ deep interest in radio astronomy instrumentation became the inspiration and driving force to found LNF.
As a researcher and engineer he considers LNF as a workplace his most important achievement: „Every day when I come to work, it is the people and the environment we have created that I am most proud of.“
Work at LNF
Low Noise Factory timeline throughout the years
The future founding of Low Noise Factory is signalled when Niklas Wadefalk begins his work developing cryogenic amplifiers as a staff engineer at Chalmers University of Technology in Göteborg, Sweden.
The work continues at California Institute of Technology (Caltech), where researching, developing and building amplifiers for the SETI Allen Telescope Array takes place. The project culminates with the array’s operations beginning in 2007.
A growing global demand for ultra low noise amplifiers for novel purposes (without forgetting radio astronomy), sets the wheels in motion to found a company that develops and manufactures LNAs. It is named Low Noise Factory. One of the company’s first customers becomes The SETI Institute with an order of hundreds of amplifiers for an expanded array of radio antennas listening to the faintest of signals from extraterrestrial life.
The upstarting field of quantum computing creates a new market for modern low noise amplifiers working at near absolute zero temperatures. This shift is driven by a growing interest in the field from major software and service companies like Google, amongst others. With our advanced products and superior quality that no competition can match, Low Noise Factory is the logical choice of amplifier provider in this new exciting era of microwave research.
LNF receives its first public grant from the local government (Västra Götalandsregionen)
The funds were used to develop an InP HEMT MMIC process together with Professor Jan Grahn and staff from nanofabrication lab (NFL) at Chalmers University of Technology.
A competence center with Chalmers as coordinator with many industrial partners from all over the world. The center was funded by the Swedish innovation agency, Vinnova and the industry partners. LNF continued the development of the InP HEMT MMIC process within the frames of this center together with Professor Jan Grahn’s group. LNF was a member until the center closed in 2022.
Project goal is to develop reliable cryogenic amplifiers for future applications. The project partner was Professor Jan Grahn’s group at Chalmers University of Technology and it was funded by the Swedish innovation agency, Vinnova.
LNF delivers Ka-band cryogenic LNAs for the next generation deep space communication to European Space Agency.
We are joining the EU project Cryonoise together with Chalmers University of Technology and other members. The goal was to develop an InP HEMT MMIC process suitable for larger scale production to meet the future demands of quantum computing.
Low Noise Factory joins the European OpenSuperQ project, founded and funded by the European Union. The project’s aim is to build a 100 qubits quantum computer in three years time. The computer is set to become one of the best of its kind in the world.
Low Noise Factory moves to a modern research, manufacturing and office facility in Göteborg, Sweden.
A fresh start in a new facility called for a new take on how Low Noise Factory communicates with the world. Same professional and personal approach, but with an elevated visual language.
LNF becomes a member of the EU project TruePa with the goal of developing a Traveling Wave Parametric Amplifier for quantum computing.
PulsHEMT is funded by Swedish innovation agency, Vinnova. In the project we investigated low power HEMTs for future quantum computers together with Professor Jan Grahn’s group at Chalmers University of Technology.
NASA launched its first CubeSats for the Tropics mission to monitor weather. These CubeSats include many of LNF’s LNAs.
The European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer (Juice) is launched with LNF’s MMICs inside. The MMICs were integrated into the receiver by our neighbors Omnisys Instruments.
We are joining the EU project Quantity together with Chalmers University of Technology and other members. The goal is to further develop the InP HEMT MMIC process for larger scale production and demonstrate miniaturization of LNAs for the next generation of quantum computers.
LNF joins the ESA Advanced Technology ARTES 4.0 Core Competitiveness Generic Program Line funded project W-BAND INTEGRATED ACTIVE RECEIVE FRONT-END, aiming at developing a high performance dual circular polarised active receiver front-end array for future space-born satellite communication systems.
LNF engages in another competence center funded by the Swedish innovation agency, Vinnova and the industry partners. WiTECH is dedicated to being a key player in creating a sustainable future by pioneering the next generation of wireless technologies, including 6G telecommunications, while championing sustainable, energy-efficient semiconductor components and design processes.
Move2THz will address today’s InP shortcomings and build a mature European ecosystem to obtain a commercially and industry viable platform for use in various mass-market applications utilizing the higher frequency spectrum towards THz and beyond.
This includes new state-of-the-art labs with e.g. 7 cryocoolers capable of a reaching 4K and equipment for long term reliability testing.
