What is QPIC-AI?
QPIC-AI is a joint EU–Republic of Korea research initiative funded under Horizon Europe and the Korean National Research Foundation (NRF). The project develops a new generation of self-calibrating Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) systems built on Photonic Integrated Circuits (PIC) and FPGA hardware, enhanced with embedded AI for autonomous drift correction and closed-loop control.
The project addresses the fundamental challenge of operational stability in QKD links: environmental drift of temperature, polarisation, and phase causes QBER degradation and forces costly manual recalibration. QPIC-AI solves this through real-time AI inference running directly on FPGA hardware, enabling sub-second stabilisation without operator intervention.
Validation is carried out through three geographically distributed pilots in Athens (healthcare), Vienna (QCI fibre), and Seoul (telecom), with cross-pilot interoperability testing contributing directly to EU–KR certification gap analysis and standards contributions to ETSI, ITU-T, and CEN-CENELEC.
Programme
Horizon Europe + NRF Korea
Duration
36 months (Start Date: 1/6/2026)
Partners
5 organisations, 4 countries
Coordinator
NCSR Demokritos, Greece
Pilots
Athens, Vienna, Seoul
Standards Focus
ETSI, ITU-T, CEN-CENELEC
Project Objectives
O1) Co-design and Fabrication of PIC-based QKD Hardware
Design and fabricate thin-film LiNbO₂ photonic integrated circuits optimised for QKD with phase modulation, polarisation control, and thermal stabilisation.
O2) Development of FPGA-based QKD system
Implement phase-encoded BB84 QKD protocol on FPGA, integrating with the photonic front end and real-time key management interfaces.
O3) AI-assisted drift prediction and closed-loop control
Deploy lightweight AI models on FPGA for real-time drift prediction, QBER stabilisation, and closed-loop actuator control.
O4) Integration, testing and validation on EU–Korea QKD testbeds
Validate the full QPIC-AI system across Athens, Vienna, and Seoul pilot environments under realistic operational conditions.
O5) Standards alignment and knowledge transfer
Contribute to ETSI ISG-QKD, ITU-T, and CEN-CENELEC standards. Develop an EU–KR certification gap report and interoperability roadmap.
O6) Strengthen EU–ROK quantum collaboration
Deploy lightweight AI models on FPGA for real-time drift prediction, QBER stabilisation, and closed-loop actuator control.
Work Packages
WP1: Project Management and Coordination
Lead: NCSR Demokritos
Overall project coordination, financial management, risk monitoring, and partner communication.
WP2: PIC Hardware Design and Fabrication
Lead: ETRI
Design and fabrication of thin-film LiNbO₂ photonic integrated circuits with integrated phase modulators and thermal management.
WP3: FPGA-Based QKD System Development
Lead: Synogate
Implementation of BB84 QKD protocol on FPGA hardware with real-time key distillation and hardware security modules.
WP4: AI-Assisted Drift Prediction and Control
Lead: NCSR Demokritos
Development and deployment of lightweight AI models for drift prediction, QBER optimisation, and closed-loop control.
WP5: Integration, Testing and Validation
Lead: AIT
System integration, lab testing, and field validation across EU and Korean pilot sites including metrics benchmarking.
WP6: Standards, EU–KR Collaboration, Dissemination
Lead: AIT
Standards contributions, EU–KR researcher exchanges, dissemination, open data publication, and exploitation planning.