Cryptographic security reduces, at its base, to the unpredictability of key material. Software pseudo-random generators are deterministic; their output is only as unpredictable as their seed and state. Quantum random number generators derive randomness from quantum-mechanical processes (photon arrival statistics, vacuum fluctuations) whose outcomes no amount of computation can predict.
QRNG hardware is commercially established; validated entropy sources under NIST SP 800-90B exist. Our interest is narrower: integrating photonic entropy generation into the same optical systems that carry the quantum key channel, so that key generation and key distribution share hardware rather than accumulating it.
NIST's lattice-based schemes impose substantially higher computational cost than the classical cryptography they replace, and the burden falls hardest on constrained devices such as avionics and battery-powered sensors. The Office of the National Cyber Director estimates federal migration costs alone at roughly $7.1 billion between 2025 and 2035; throughput on constrained hardware is a large part of why.
Photonic integrated circuits perform certain operation classes, notably large matrix multiplication and parallel arithmetic via wavelength division multiplexing, at high speed and low power. Those are the operation classes that dominate lattice-based PQC: number-theoretic-transform butterflies for ML-KEM and ML-DSA, parallel hash trees for SLH-DSA. We investigate mapping these kernels onto photonic hardware, analogous to how existing cryptographic accelerators offload specific functions to dedicated silicon.
Problems still open, for us and for the field: electro-optical interface bandwidth, deterministic timing for side-channel resistance, and a FIPS 140-3 certification pathway for modules containing photonic components. This track is the research behind H.U.G.0, the photonic security module we are designing; the full analysis is published in our white paper (PDF).
We collaborate with university groups, consortium members, and program teams on photonics, entropy, and PQC deployment questions.
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