NEW YORK, NY — May 19, 2021 — Toshiba America, Inc. today announced a new partnership with the Chicago Quantum Exchange, an intellectual hub advancing the science and engineering of quantum information.

Toshiba will collaborate with the Chicago Quantum Exchange and its members to secure their quantum internet communications systems using Toshiba’s quantum key distribution (QKD) platform. With QKD, two parties can communicate data securely without any risk of it being intercepted, by exchanging secret keys in the form of quantum states.

The leader in QKD patents worldwide, Toshiba is developing a global platform for quantum information technology based on decades of scientific research on quantum physics. Toshiba’s research on quantum cryptography goes back to 2003; the company was the first to announce QKD over 100 kilometers of fiber in 2004 and broke global records for continuous key rate in 2010 and 2017. 

The company has recently introduced two new QKD products, which both represent groundbreaking innovation: one product achieves the longest distance currently available, and the other product broadens the potential uses of QKD technology by transmitting keys and data on a single fiber.

“Toshiba is thrilled to engage with the Chicago Quantum Exchange and their corporate partners,” said Yasushi Kawakura, vice president and general manager of Toshiba America, Inc. “As a pioneer in quantum key distribution systems, we’re looking forward to developing a test bed for a quantum network that will help usher in the future of the quantum internet.”

The Chicago Quantum Exchange member institutions and corporate partners collaborate on research efforts, host joint workshops to develop new research possibilities, and provide opportunities for training the next generation of quantum scientists and engineers through internships and postdoctoral programs. Andrew Shields, head of quantum technology at Toshiba Labs in Cambridge, United Kingdom, spoke on some of this work at the 2019 Chicago Quantum Summit.

“Innovation in quantum information science requires a strong synergy of partnerships with complementary expertise,” said David Awschalom, the Liew Family Professor in Molecular Engineering and Physics at the University of Chicago, senior scientist at Argonne, director of the Chicago Quantum Exchange, and director of Q-NEXT, a Department of Energy Quantum Information Science Center. “The addition of new partners and their perspectives will help accelerate discovery and technological development and produce a skilled quantum workforce.”

About Toshiba America, Inc.
Founded in 1965, Toshiba America, Inc. (TAI) is a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Toshiba Corporation and the holding company of four Toshiba operating companies that offer a broad range of products and solutions for the residential, commercial and industrial sectors. The four companies, which along with TAI are known collectively as Toshiba America Group, are Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. (Semiconductor solutions), Toshiba America Energy Systems, Corp. (Power generation solutions), Toshiba International Corporation (Industrial, power electronics & transmission & distribution solutions) and Toshiba America Research, Inc. (R&D). 

About Chicago Quantum Exchange

The Chicago Quantum Exchange is headquartered at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering. It is anchored by the University of Chicago, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Northwestern University. Member institutions and corporate partners collaborate on research efforts, host joint workshops to develop new research possibilities, and provide opportunities for training the next generation of quantum scientists and engineers through internships and postdoctoral programs.