Lorraine Williamson
The encryption protecting your bank login was designed for a world without quantum computers. That world is changing fast. As governments race to “future-proof” digital security, researchers in Valencia are trying to move quantum-safe communications out of specialist labs and onto something far more practical: a chip.
At the heart of the push is a project at the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) developing photonic chips — microchips that move information using light rather than electrical signals. The promise is speed, lower power consumption, and communications that are vastly harder to intercept without detection.
Why light matters in the race for safer data
Most of today’s devices rely on electrical currents to carry data. Photonics replaces that with photons. On a chip, light can be generated, guided, and detected with extreme precision, enabling high-speed links that are also attractive for security-focused systems.
This is where quantum principles come in. In quantum-secure communications — particularly approaches linked to quantum key distribution (QKD) — eavesdropping attempts can disturb the signal, making interception detectable in ways classical systems cannot guarantee. That’s why policymakers across Europe describe quantum-based security as an added defensive layer for critical services.
It’s also why researchers are careful about the word “unhackable”. Quantum methods can dramatically reduce certain interception risks, but real-world systems still depend on implementation, devices, and wider cyber hygiene. In practice, the aim is not magic immunity — it is pushing attackers out of the shadows and raising the cost of intrusion.
Shrinking quantum comms from lab benches to real networks
One of the biggest barriers has been scale. Many quantum communication demonstrations have relied on bulky, expensive laboratory setups. UPV’s stated goal is miniaturisation: build a compact, stable, energy-efficient chip that can operate outside controlled lab conditions.
To do that, the project combines silicon (the workhorse of modern electronics) with other advanced semiconductor materials that can act as highly precise light sources and detectors. The result is a hybrid approach designed to blend reliability with performance.
Where these chips could end up first
If the work scales, photonic and quantum-ready chips have obvious early adopters: sectors that handle sensitive data and cannot afford “silent” interception.
Healthcare networks and public services are frequently cited in European planning documents, alongside other critical infrastructure such as energy systems and secure government communications. Financial services, too, are an obvious fit — not because banks need exotic science, but because they need trust at scale.
Beyond security, photonic integration is also linked to faster, more efficient computing and specialised sensing — the kind of enabling tech that quietly changes what networks and devices can do.
The Valencian “quantum plan” behind the project
UPV’s chip work sits within the Valencian Community’s quantum communications plan, one of 11 initiatives involving four universities: UPV, the Universitat de València, the University of Alicante, and CEU Cardenal Herrera.
Nationally, the broader Plan Complementario de I+D+I en Comunicación Cuántica has been co-funded with several autonomous communities and the CSIC, and Spanish government sources say it mobilised more than €75 million.
It also aligns with Europe’s wider drive to build a continent-wide quantum-secure communications infrastructure through EuroQCI.
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A quiet shift with big implications
This is the less glamorous side of tech revolutions: not a gadget launch, but the painstaking work of turning frontier physics into components that industry can actually deploy. If UPV and its partners can reliably compress quantum-capable communications onto a chip, the impact could be felt long before most people ever hear the term “photonics”.
In a decade shaped by AI, data leaks, and geopolitical cyber risk, the future may belong to the technologies that make interception harder, detection quicker, and trust less fragile.
Sources and further reading
infoPLC: “Tecnología cuántica que impulsa la seguridad en las comunicaciones” (UPV photonic chip project summary).
Spanish Ministry of Science (MICIU): Plan Complementario in Quantum Communication mobilised €75.3m (Nov 2025).
EU Digital Strategy: EuroQCI overview and purpose.
Plan de Recuperación (Spanish government): Plan Complementario Quantum Communication programme notes (Nov 2025).