Low-cost, High-end Tactical-grade Fiber Optic Gyroscope Based on Photonic Integrated Circuit

A multifunctional., photonic-integrated circuit (PIC) is developed., specially designed for low-cost manufacturing of high-end tactical-grade fiber optic gyroscopes (FOGs). The PIC comprises functional integrated FOG components that compose the so-called “heart of the interferometer” based on a highly polarization-maintaining (PM) waveguide. FOGs with different fiber coil sizes are built using the PICs; the PIC FOGs are also called photonic gyros. A photonic gyro with a 110-meter-Ionz fiber coil of 6cm diameter is demonstrated to have 0.59
^°
/hour/√Hz angle random walk., 0.048°/hour bias drift, 15.44 ppm scale factor error, 0.24°/hour bias instability, and 43.09 ppm scale factor instability over a temperature range of -40 to 75°C.