Priorität Cybersicherheit: Forscher*innen entwickeln photonische Verschlüsselungen

Press release - Fraunhofer IZM - October 18, 2022

Cybercrime incidents are on the rise: To protect information in electronic components from tampering or illicit use, a crack consortium of research institutes, private enterprises, and universities have formed the »Silhouette« project to develop solutions for encrypting data in the optical domain that is considered safe from tampering and eavesdropping. Researchers at Fraunhofer IZM are part of this campaign and are developing a cost-efficient method for the precise coupling of microelectronic components to make data transmissions safer and more secure.

The digital evolution is showing its dark side: Cyberattacks have become common, and more and more enterprises and private individuals are falling prey to them. Protecting sensitive data, especially in open processes, needs reliable electronics, whose development the German Ministry of Education and Research is funding with its “Trustworthy Electronics” campaign. One solution that is attracting increasing attention here is the use of optical transmission, which is considered much safer from wiretapping and promises much faster speeds in operation.

In their quest to transmit sensitive information by photonic signals, the research consortium behind the »Silhouette« project is working on a modular standardized platform with an electro-optical interposer as the interface turning electronic into optical signals, transmitting it to its intended recipient, validating it, and translating it back into electronic signals. The experts on the project are committed to making this novel process compatible with current hardware solutions as a key step towards new hybrid systems for future cryptography.

The »Silhouette« project has a budget of €15 million to work with, of which €12 million were provided by funding from Germany’s Ministry of Education and Research. The project consortium includes several research institutes: The Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS (Dresden) as coordinator, the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration IZM (Berlin) represented by its IZM-ASSID unit from Moritzburg, the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich Hertz Institute HHI (Berlin), the Institute of Electronic Packaging Technology (IAVT) and the Integrated Photonic Devices (IPD) Group of the Technical University of Dresden, the tech R&D and manufacturer OSRAM Opto Semiconductors of Regensburg and the quantum optics developer and distributor qutools of Munich. The research work will progress until 2024.

Full Press release – Fraunhofer IZM