ID Quantique

For other uses, see IDQ.

ID Quantique SA

Company type	Private (venture funded)
Industry	Quantum Cryptography Random Number Generation Photon Counting
Founded	Geneva, Switzerland (2001;24 years ago (2001))
Headquarters	Geneva, GE , Switzerland
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Nicolas Gisin Grégoire Ribordy Hugo Zbinden
Website	idquantique.com

ID Quantique (IDQ) is a Swiss company that provides quantum key distribution (QKD) systems, quantum safe network encryption, single photon counters, and hardware random number generators.

Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, IDQ was founded in 2001 as a spin-off of the Group of Applied Physics at the University of Geneva. the firm is structured in three business units:

• The quantum safe cryptography division
• The photon counting division
• The quantum random number generation division

In 2025, IonQ announced that it had completed its acquisition of a controlling stake in ID Quantique. ^[1]

Divisions

Quantum Safe Cryptography Division

The Quantum Safe Cryptography division focuses on data protection and provides:

• quantum-safe network encryption
• quantum key distribution
• quantum key generation and key management

Photon Counting Division

The Photon Counting division works on optical instrumentation products such as:

• photon counters in the visible and infrared spectrum
• photon pair sources
• quantum key distribution for R&D applications

Random Number Generation

The company's work in Random Number Generation focuses on developing hardware random number generators based on quantum randomness, for cryptographic and security applications (quantum key generation) and research purposes (MonteCarlo simulations).

ID Quantique Achievements

The company has realized several world premieres in quantum technology innovation.

• In 2004, ID Quantique was one of the first in the world to bring a quantum key distribution system to a commercial market. (MagiQ Technologies, Inc. announced the availability of its quantum key distribution system in 2003.) ^[2]
• In 2007 quantum cryptography was deployed by a government for the first time ever to protect the Geneva state elections in Switzerland. ^{[3] [4] [5]} It is still in deployment.
• In 2010 the company deployed QKD over multiplexed networks with 1 Gbit/s of data, ^{[6] [7]} and in 2011 the company ran its QKD systems for over 18 months in the Swissquantum ^[8] network in cooperation with the University of Geneva.
• In 2014, principles from IDQ together with the University of Geneva, broke the world record for the longest distance key exchange by QKD – 307 km. ^[9]
• In 2014 IDQ's Quantis true random number generator became the first QRNG to pass the German BSI's AIS31 ^[10] randomness validation.
• In 2014 ID Quantique and Battelle co-founded the Quantum-Safe Security Working Group in the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA). The group aims to help governments and industry understand quantum‐safe methods for protecting their networks and their data, following the call by the European telecommunications Institute (ETSI) for quantum safe cryptography in their 2014 white paper "Quantum Safe Cryptography and Security". ^[11]
• ID Quantique also announced their Quantum Random Number Generator (QRNG) chip has been integrated in the ‘Vsmart Aris 5G’ smartphone made by VinSmart, a member of Vingroup from Vietnam. ^[12]

See also

• Quantum key distribution
• Quantum cryptography
• Hardware random number generator

Notes

1. "IonQ Completes Acquisition of ID Quantique, Cementing Leadership in Quantum Networking and Secure Communications". ID Quantique. Retrieved 5 September 2025.
2. Although the commercial availability was announced earlier, the first orders were shipped to customers around 2004.
3. "Geneva Vote Will Use Quantum Cryptography". October 2007. Retrieved 21 January 2018.
4. "Quantum cryptography to protect Swiss election" . Retrieved 21 January 2018.
5. Messmer, Ellen (11 October 2007). "Quantum cryptography to secure ballots in Swiss election" . Retrieved 21 January 2018.
6. Eraerds, Patrick; Walenta, Nino; Legre, Matthieu; Gisin, Nicolas; Zbinden, Hugo (15 June 2010). "Quantum key distribution and 1 Gbit/s data encryption over a single fibre". New Journal of Physics. 12 (6): 063027. arXiv: 0912.1798 . Bibcode:2010NJPh...12f3027E. doi:10.1088/1367-2630/12/6/063027. S2CID   56229470.
7. Walenta, Nino; Burg, Andreas; Caselunghe, Dario; Constantin, Jeremy; Gisin, Nicolas; Guinnard, Olivier; Houlmann, Raphael; Junod, Pascal; Korzh, Boris; Kulesza, Natalia; Legré, Matthieu; Lim, Charles Ci Wen; Lunghi, Tommaso; Monat, Laurent; Portmann, Christopher; Soucarros, Mathilde; Trinkler, Patrick; Trolliet, Gregory; Vannel, Fabien; Zbinden, Hugo (23 January 2014). "A fast and versatile QKD system with hardware key distillation and wavelength multiplexing". New Journal of Physics. 16 (1): 013047. arXiv: 1309.2583 . Bibcode:2014NJPh...16a3047W. doi:10.1088/1367-2630/16/1/013047. S2CID   15463299.
8. "Looking Back at the SwissQuantum Project – Pascal Junod". Archived from the original on 26 November 2015. Retrieved 25 November 2015.
9. Korzh, Boris; Lim, Charles Ci Wen; Houlmann, Raphael; Gisin, Nicolas; Li, Ming Jun; Nolan, Daniel; Sanguinetti, Bruno; Thew, Rob; Zbinden, Hugo (1 March 2015). "Provably Secure and Practical Quantum Key Distribution over 307 km of Optical Fibre". Nature Photonics. 9 (3): 163–168. arXiv: 1407.7427 . Bibcode:2015NaPho...9..163K. doi:10.1038/nphoton.2014.327. S2CID   59028718.
10. "BSI - Zertifizierung und Anerkennung - Anwendungshinweise und Interpretationen zum Schema (AIS) AIS 31" (PDF). www.bsi.bund.de. Retrieved 21 January 2018.
11. Quantum Safe Cryptography and Security; An introduction, benefits, enablers and challenges. ISBN   979-10-92620-03-0. Archived 2015-02-24 at the Wayback Machine
12. ID Quantique integrates its quantum chip in Vsmart Aris 5G Smartphone ID Quantique. 23 July 2020

46°10′48″N6°08′07″E / 46.1800886°N 6.1353231°E / 46.1800886; 6.1353231