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Information Security and Communications Privacy

Design of Phase Modulator Drive Circuit for Quantum Key Distribution

Fu-Chen Zhu

Published Jan 1, 2010• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

Based on analysis of working principle and circuit requirement of the phase modulator in quantum key distribution system,the phase modulator drive circuit is designed.The scheme,based on LiNbO3 electro-optic phase modulator,applies FPGA to providing the clock and control signals,while high-precision DAC and high-speed analog switch to producing the drive signal with precision up to nanoseconds.The driver circuit,with low cost,high modulation precision,and low power consumption,could achieve a precise control of optical phase.The experimental result indicates that this design could fully meet the system requirements,and the scheme is of feasibility and reliability.

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Chinese Journal of Quantum Electronics•Jan 1, 2011•1 citation
Based on analysis of working principle and circuit requirement of the phase modulator in quantum key distribution system,the phase modulator drive circuit is designed.The scheme,based on LiNbO3 electro-optic phase modulator,applies FPGA to providing the clock and control signals,while high-precision DAC and high-speed analog switch to producing the drive signal with precision up to nanoseconds.The driver circuit,with low cost,high modulation precision,and low power consumption,could achieve a precise control of optical phase.The experimental result indicates that this design could fully meet the system requirements,and the scheme is of feasibility and reliability.
Compared with discrete variable quantum key distribution, the Continuous Variable Quantum Key Distribution (CVQKD) system has the advantages of simple equipment, low technical difficulty, and high channel capacity, in addition to unconditional security and detectability for wiretapping. In this paper, the laser light source control system realizes the control and adjustment functions of the photon quantum state, which was encoded with information. In order to generate the synchronous optical pulse signals, the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), multi-channel Digital to Analog Converter (DAC), and micro power Analog to Digital Converter (ADC) were used to control the synchronous optical laser. The control of multiple amplitude modulators and phase modulators is achieved based on the FPGA and high-speed DAC. At present, the electronics performance test of the laser light source control system has been completed, and the results show that the requirements of the CVQKD system index are met.
Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) has garnered significant attention due to its unconditional security based on the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics. While QKD has been demonstrated by various groups and commercial QKD products are available, the development of a fully chip-based QKD system, aimed at reducing costs, size, and power consumption, remains a significant technological challenge. Most researchers focus on the optical aspects, leaving the integration of the electronic components largely unexplored. In this paper, we present the design of a fully integrated electrical control chip for QKD applications. The chip, fabricated using 28 nm CMOS technology, comprises five main modules: an ARM processor for digital signal processing, delay cells for timing synchronization, ADC for sampling analog signals from monitors, OPAMP for signal amplification, and DAC for generating the required voltage for phase or intensity modulators. According to the simulations, the minimum delay is 11ps, the open-loop gain of the operational amplifier is 86.2 dB, the sampling rate of the ADC reaches 50 MHz, and the DAC achieves a high rate of 100 MHz. To the best of our knowledge, this marks the first design and evaluation of a fully integrated driver chip for QKD, holding the potential to significantly enhance QKD system performance. Thus, we believe our work could inspire future investigations toward the development of more efficient and reliable QKD systems.
This paper discusses in detail the principle of the optical devices in both continuous and discrete variable quantum key distribution,including the classical QKD communication system. A circuit control module using Xilinx Corporation's ML405 Evaluation Platform and suitable for various QKD experiments is proposed. The controller generates necessary nanosecond clock signals for optical devices and integrates quantum cryptography communication system. Finally,the design flow is implemented by downloading the bit stream,which is generated by the Embedded Software ISE9.1i and EDK9.1i,into FPGA chip,and completely meets the needs of the experiment.
A light synchronization scheme to solve the key problem of signal synchronization in quantum key distribution(QKD)system is proposed.At side of the transmitter,the field-programmable gate array (FPGA)chip produces a synchronization pulse sequence of certain pattern.The pulse sequence drives laser to transmit sync light through one fiber along with signal light to the receiver.The sync light reverts to sync pulse sequence through fast discrimination at side of the receiver,and the pulses are provided to the single-photon detector as gate after high-precision delay adjustment.Simultaneously,the receiver uses a high-frequency clock to sample the sync pulse sequence in FPGA for encoding,synchronizing the transmitter and receiver.The scheme has a high-precision,low-cost,high fault tolerance feature,and was successfully applied to metro quantum communication network.