A recent world’s first demonstration conducted within the framework of the ERC grant of AIT photonics expert Bernhard Schrenk from the Center for Digital Safety & Security has received recognition by being accepted as one of the prestigious post-deadline papers at the world’s largest conference on optical telecommunications. Post-deadline papers resemble excellent works that are compelling in their timeliness as they feature significant advances and late-breaking demonstrations in rapidly advancing areas.
In the work entitled “World’s First Monolithic SiGe QKD Transmitter Chip”, the team at AIT proved an all-silicon transmitter for quantum key distribution, which for the first time eliminates the need for III-V semiconductors. As such, it unlocks new application domains where integrated photonic circuits still face a complexity roadblock due to additional assembly and packaging burdens, which go well beyond what is widely accepted for silicon-based commodity electronics. The paper has been presented by first author Florian Honz on 3rd of April in San Francisco.
OFC is the premier global event for optical networking and communications. Almost 17,000 individuals from 83 countries attended OFC 2025, which makes it the industry’s most comprehensive gathering that can boast 685 exhibitors and 1,300 paper submissions.