{"id":3147,"date":"2026-06-09T09:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T00:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sktelecom.com\/en\/?p=3147"},"modified":"2026-06-09T09:28:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T00:28:17","slug":"sk-telecom-develops-next-generation-quantum-cryptography-technology-with-eu-research-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.sktelecom.com\/en\/3147","title":{"rendered":"SK Telecom Develops Next-Generation Quantum Cryptography Technology with EU Research Funding"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00b7 SK Telecom becomes first Asian private company to secure a Horizon Europe quantum cryptography project <\/strong>
\n\u00b7 Establishing a foundation to expand the quantum cryptography communications through the integration of quantum and AI technologies <\/strong>
\n\u00b7 Multinational R&D collaboration among Greece, Austria, Germany and Korea<\/strong><\/p>\n

SK Telecom (NYSE: SKM, hereafter \u201cSKT\u201d) announced today that it has secured a project under Horizon Europe, the European Union (EU)\u2019s large scale research funding program, to develop next-generation quantum cryptography technology. The project is a multinational collaboration involving three European countries and will be carried out over the next three years.<\/p>\n

Horizon Europe is the EU\u2019s flagship research funding program, with a total budget of approximately 95.5 billion euros. Korea became the first Asian country to join Horizon Europe as an associate member in July 2025, enabling it to receive research funding directly from the EU. Leveraging its expertise in quantum cryptography, SKT has been selected as the first Asian private company to receive research funding under the program.
\nThe objective of the project is to develop and demonstrate a next-generation Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) system based on Quantum Photonic Integrated Circuit-Artificial Intelligence (QPIC-AI) to strengthen communications security.<\/p>\n

QKD is a technology that leverages the principles of quantum mechanics to simultaneously generate and distribute cryptographic keys between communicating parties. It is widely regarded as the most secure cryptographic system in existence today; any interception attempt by a third party instantly alters the physical state of the quantum particles, making it in principle impossible to intercept undetected.<\/p>\n

However, the widespread adoption of current QKD systems remains limited. Because precision optical components \u2014 such as single-photon sources and interferometers \u2014 must be individually assembled and aligned in the form of discrete equipment, the resulting systems are bulky and heavy, leading to high deployment costs. Consequently, miniaturizing QKD systems and reducing these costs have emerged as critical prerequisites for expanding the broader quantum cryptographic communications market.<\/p>\n

The QPIC-AI technology developed by SKT under this project addresses these challenges through a dual-action approach.<\/p>\n

First, it drastically miniaturizes the system by consolidating multiple bulky optical components onto a single, tiny chip using semiconductor process technology (PIC, Photonic Integrated Circuit). Much like how smartphone camera modules condensed entire traditional cameras into a single chip, the objective is to replace large, heavy optical hardware with a single chip.<\/p>\n

Second, by embedding AI directly into the system, the technology continuously detects and calibrates the optical state in real time, mitigating instabilities caused by external environmental factors such as temperature changes and vibrations to enhance overall QKD system stability.<\/p>\n

The benefits of QPIC process technology extend far beyond chip-based miniaturization. Enabling mass production through semiconductor manufacturing will significantly lower unit costs, while also reducing power consumption to cut down overall operating costs. Ultimately, this will lay the groundwork for QKD technology \u2014 which has previously been confined to specialized sectors like defense and finance \u2014 to expand and scale across a much wider range of industries.<\/p>\n

The project will be conducted as a multinational collaboration involving institutions from three European countries. Participating institutions include the National Centre of Scientific Research \u201cDemokritos\u201d (NCSRD) in Greece, the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT), and German semiconductor startup Synogate UG.<\/p>\n

NCSRD will coordinate the overall project and develop AI for controlling QKD optical systems; AIT will develop the key management system; and Synogate UG will design AI functional logic.<\/p>\n

SKT will develop the PIC-based QKD system, apply AI functions, and build and validate the QKD testbed, while the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) develops PIC-based optical chips for QKD transmitter and receiver systems.<\/p>\n

The project is also expected to contribute to international standardization in quantum cryptography. Korea and Europe currently operate under different certification standards for quantum cryptography technologies. Through this joint research, a comparative analysis of these national differences will be conducted, establishing a foundation for unifying future international certification standards under global institutions.<\/p>\n

SKT has been dedicated to quantum cryptography research and development (R&D) and commercialization for over 15 years since 2011. By securing and participating in various national projects backed by the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) and the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), SKT has led the development of next-generation quantum cryptography. The company is expanding its fiber-based QKD technology into wireless and satellite QKD, while also developing next-generation technologies like 10 Gbps class, high-performance quantum random number generator (QRNG).<\/p>\n

In addition, SKT is applying post-quantum cryptography (PQC) technologies compliant with U.S. standards to zero-trust solutions and quantum cryptography hardware security modules (Q-HSM) and is expanding these technologies into defense and public sector applications.<\/p>\n

\u201cSecuring this Horizon Europe project reflects SKT\u2019s depth of expertise in quantum cryptography R&D. Building on this, SKT will strengthen its position in the global quantum cryptography market through the development of next-generation QKD systems that integrate PIC and AI technologies,\u201d said Yu Takki, Head of Network Technology Office at SKT. \u201cThe experience and outcomes from this multinational collaboration are also expected to make a meaningful contribution to the advancement of quantum technology in Korea.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00b7 SK Telecom becomes first Asian private company to secure a Horizon Europe quantum cryptography project \u00b7 Establishing a foundation to expand the quantum cryptography communications through the integration of quantum and AI technologies \u00b7 Multinational R&D collaboration among Greece,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3028,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[129,217,151],"class_list":["post-3147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-release","tag-post-quantum-cryptography","tag-qkd","tag-quantum-keys"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.sktelecom.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.sktelecom.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.sktelecom.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.sktelecom.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.sktelecom.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3147"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/news.sktelecom.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3152,"href":"https:\/\/news.sktelecom.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3147\/revisions\/3152"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.sktelecom.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.sktelecom.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.sktelecom.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.sktelecom.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}