Engineers developed a random number generator that could provide secure encryption keys small enough for use in mobile devices.
Using photonic integrated circuit technology, researchers working with the Optical Society, a professional organization for scientists, engineers, students, and entrepreneurs, created two quantum number generators that together measure six millimeters by two millimeters. The PIC technology integrates photonic components like lasers and detectors used by the generators onto a chip with a small footprint and low power consumption. The devices can be combined with traditional electronics necessary for computation or communications.
Random number generators are critical to the encryption that protects us when we buy products online or withdraw cash at the ATM. This new device operates at speeds in the range of gigabits per second, fast enough for real-time encryption of communication data like phone or video calls or for encrypting large amounts of data traveling to and from a server like those used by social media platforms.
Current random number generators are based on computer algorithms or the randomness of physical processes – complex versions of rolling dice over and over again. This leaves data vulnerable to hacking in some cases.
The new device generates random numbers based on the quantum properties of light, a process inherently random and impossible to predict. Similar generators have been developed, but Optical Society researchers believe their invention is smaller than those and could be applied to mobile devices with ease.
“We’ve managed to put quantum-based technology that has been used in high-profile science experiments into a package that might allow it be used commercially,” said Carlos Abellan, a doctoral student at the Institute of Photonic Sciences, one of the authors of a report outlining the research in the Optical Society’s Optica journal.
“This is likely just one example of quantum technologies that will soon be available for use in real commercial products. It is a big step forward as far as integration is concerned.”
