Monolithic Silicon Quantum Communication Circuitry

The advent of quantum computing and its unprecedented computational power has called the sustainability of today’s widely established encryption methods into question.

Even though quantum physics addresses this emerging threat by offering quantum key distribution (QKD) at the same time, the complexity inherent to QKD systems constitutes a roadblock for their practical introduction, especially when addressing telecommunication segments that are subject to commodity-like applications.MOSQITO is an ERC Proof-of-Concept study that aims to proof the applicability of a novel monolithic silicon integration approach that is touted as a trailblazer to greatly simplify quantum communication circuits while further providing a graceful migration path towards a seamless integration of microelectronics.

We will build on a recently demonstrated silicon optical power supply, which enables light emission through a quasi-direct silicon bandgap structure – thus alleviating silicon photonic integrated circuits (PIC) from the burden of complex hetero-integration of III-V materials.MOSQITO will conduct (i) the world’s first demonstration of a PIC-based QKD transmitter for BB84 polarization-encoded key exchange, where every element has been realized exclusively on a silicon basis, (ii) an evaluation of this greatly simplified QKD hardware for commodity applications such as 6G, residential access, the Industrial Internet or massively-parallel data interconnects – all of them being segments where traditional QKD implementations cannot enter the market due to cost and size concerns, and (iii) strategic clustering activities with silicon platform partners to lay inroads for refining the silicon light emitter with respect to further performance scaling and manufacturing readiness level.