UNIQORN

UNIQORN is a European consortium of academic organizations, industry-oriented research institutes, and businesses developing quantum communications devices. UNIQORN's goal is to extend existing photonic technology to accommodate quantum communications by integrating complex systems, which are presently found on meter-size breadboards, into millimeter-size chips. This research will result in field trials demonstrating the readiness of the technology.

A 3-year project, UNIQORN launched in October 2018 when it was chosen as part of the European Union's Quantum Flagship intiative receiving €9,979,905 in funding.

UNIQORN aims to develop key components for quantum communication systems such as true random number generation and secure-key distribution. This includes specialized optical sources and detector technology realized on mainstream fabrication platforms. To produce miniaturized quantum-optic systems that utilize quantum mechanical features such as entanglement and light squeezing requires system-on-chip integration.

These quantum communication systems allow for high security encryption, secure and privacy-protecting database searches.

The UNIQORN consortium is made up of 17 partners from 9 EU Member States and Horizon 2020 Associated States (Austria, Germany, Denmark, Netherlands, Italy, Greece, United Kingdom, Belgium, and Israel).

UNIQORN will be coordinated by Hannes Hübel, at the Austrian Institute of Technology.

• 8 academic organizations: University of Innsbruck (UIBK), Paderborn University (UPB), University of Vienna (UNIVIE), Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Eindhoven University of Technology (TUE), Polytechnic University of Milan (POLIMI), Institute of Communication and Computer Systems (ICCS) of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), and University of Bristol (UNIVBRIS).
• 3 industry-oriented research institutes: Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT), Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI), and Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre (IMEC).
• 3 small and medium enterprises: SMART Photonics, Micro Photon Devices (MPD), and VPI Photonics.
• 3 large companies: CORDON Electronics, Mellanox Technologies (MLNX), Cosmote (COSM).

The research agenda is led by AIT as the project coordinator and ICCS as the technical manager.