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Excellent Science INNOVATION
Novel technology for quantum communication, including design and production of demonstrator of a fully integrated on chip sub system
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Market Maturity: Tech Ready
These are innovations that are progressing on technology development process (e.g. pilots, prototypes, demonstration). Learn more
Market Creation Potential
This innovation was assessed by the JRC’s Market Creation Potential indicator framework as addressing the needs of existing markets and existing customers. Learn more
Location of Key Innovators developing this innovation
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UN Sustainable Development Goals(SDG)
This innovation contributes to the following SDG(s)
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL 9
Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

The UN explains: "Investments in infrastructure – transport, irrigation, energy and information and communication technology – are crucial to achieving sustainable development and empowering communities in many countries. It has long been recognized that growth in productivity and incomes, and improvements in health and education outcomes require investment in infrastructure."

The EU-funded Research Project
This innovation was developed under the Horizon 2020 project UNIQORN with an end date of 30/06/2022
  • Read more about this project on CORDIS
Description of Project UNIQORN
Quantum communication is recognised as one of the pillars for the second quantum revolution thanks to its unique potential for information-theoretical data security. Turning this promise into tangible assets depends however, on the availability of high-performance, compact and cost-effective modules for practical implementations. UNIQORN is a well-orchestrated design and manufacturing framework aiming to advance the quantum communication technology for DV and CV systems by carefully laying out each element along the development chain from fabrication to application. Component-wise, UNIQORN will leverage the monolithic integration potential of InP platform, the flexibility of polymer platform and low-cost assembly techniques to develop quantum system-on-chip modules in a cheap, scalable and reproducible way. UNIQORN will deliver bright (10M pairs/s/mW/THz) heralded, entangled and squeezed light sources with 70-fold size reduction and almost 90% cost savings, room-temperature arrayed SPADs and a 10-GHz CV receiver with low-noise TIAs. Fully functional systems based on these assets will include: (i) a network adapter card with integrated real-time QRNG engine, (ii) the first DPS transmitter as pluggable SFP module for low-cost 1-kb/s QKD, and (iii) novel oblivious transfer and quantum FPGA systems. Network-integration and system evaluation in real fibre networks will be enabled by quantum-aware software defined networking and field trials in the live Smart-City demonstrator Bristol-is-Open. The power of the developed ecosystem will be also validated by pushing current QKD-centric work into higher grounds, and demonstrating one-time programs and secure database access through oblivious transfer. The trans-disciplinary approach of UNIQORN brings together leading European players from quantum optics and photonics enabling to move from lab science to field deployment and bridge the quantum divide between large (governmental) and small (residential) end-users.

Innnovation Radar's analysis of this innovation is based on data collected on 14/05/2020.
The unique id of this innovation in the European Commission's IT systems is: 19578