16.3 A 16×16 pixels SPAD-based 128-Mb/s quantum random number generator with −74dB light rejection ratio and −6.7ppm/°C bias sensitivity on temperature

A robust true random number generator (TRNG), able to assure high quality output at different working conditions, is an attractive solution in secure communication application, because it increases resilience against possible external attacks. Among different TRNGs, quantum RNGs (QRNG) represent a good candidate for such systems, because of their compactness, low cost and performance [1–6]. They typically consist of a source of photons, such as an attenuated LED, coupled to a detector with single photon capability (SPAD). Many works in the literature have used a single detector [1–4] for random bit extraction. These devices are characterized by a limited bit rate [1], which can be increased by exploiting the arrival time of photons at the cost of circuit and system complexity [2–4]. Recent works [5–6] proposed to implement an array of detectors based on SPAD working in parallel thus extending the speed of QRNG up to 5 Gb/s [5]. Despite the high bit rate, the main drawback of [5] is the strong dependence of each pixel bias on the impinging light intensity which forces the system to work only for a narrow range of photon flux that poses several constraints on the design of the final QRNG system, e.g. the need of a feedback control loop to maintain a constant flux of photons, and of a uniform distribution of light over the entire sensor. Moreover, it is impractical to implement algorithms for bit extraction to all detectors of the array because of different responses and mismatches among SPADs.