QUANTUM RANDOM NUMBER GENERATOR

- Compared to other QRNGs manufactured in monolithic integrated InP technologies, this invention requires only a single laser as a device.active, instead of two lasers, thus reducing the possibility of failure of operation and providing greater ease of control of the point of operation of a single laser. Furthermore, the QRNG device of the invention needs a single photodetector device and not two, like other existing QRNGs, since it does not use homodyne detection to extract random numbers. <p> - It allows a high degree of repeatability, standardization and reliability in the manufacturing process of the QRNGs integrated in the PIC, so that they can be manufactured at low cost and by volume. The lnP technology allows to integrate all the active and passive devices in a single chip, also maintaining the polarization. <p> - Both the active and the passive devices, necessary for the correct operation of the generator QRNG, have been introduced in the same integrated circuit (chip). <p> - The chip in which the device is contained has electrical inputs and outputs and all the required components built-in. Therefore, it can be operated and wired like a normal electronic chip despite using photonics inside. <p> - Total on-chip device footprint is the smallest of InP's integrated QRNGs, 9mm2. <p> - The device operates in GHz. In a preferred embodiment, the generated bit rate is 1.8 Gbps. <p> - The device is tuneable within its spectral free range, which allows adjustment of the generated bit rate by appropriately tuning the asymmetric Mach-Zehnder interferometer used to convert random phase noise into random amplitudes. <p> - The device also has a second symmetric Mach-Zehnder interferometer, which allows the adjustment of the power of the pulses that run through both branches of the asymmetric interferometer and, therefore, a collision with the maximum possible level of extinction. <p> - The device has frequency multiplexing capacity, through the use of two lasers connected as possible sources of phase noise that, when both operate slightly out of tune in frequency, manage to double the rate of random bits generated, by doubling the bits in channels frequency parallels. The generated phase noise is produced, in a preferred embodiment, through a DBR laser, with the ability to provide high output optical power, high optical efficiency and reduced line width.