We present experimental results on a Josephson parametric amplifier tailored
for readout of ultra-sensitive thermal microwave detectors. In particular, we
discuss the impact of fabrication details on the performance. We show that the
small volume of deposited dielectric materials enabled by the side-wall
passivated spacer niobium junction technology leads to robust operation across
a wide range of operating temperatures up to 1.5 K. The flux-pumped amplifier
has gain in excess of 20 dB in three-wave mixing and its center frequency is
tunable between 540 MHz and 640 MHz. At 600 MHz, the amplifier adds 105 mK
± 9 mK of noise, as determined with the hot/cold source method.
Phase-sensitive amplification is demonstrated with the device
