Recent advances in miniaturized optical gyroscopes

Abstract

Low-cost chip-scale optoelectronic gyroscopes having a resolution ≤ 10 • /h and a good reliability also in harsh environments could have a strong impact on the medium/high performance gyro market, which is currently dominated by well-established bulk optical angular velocity sensors. The R&D activity aiming at the demonstration of those miniaturized sensors is crucial for aerospace/defense industry, and thus it is attracting an increasing research effort and notably funds.In this paper the recent technological advances on the compact optoelectronic gyroscopes with low weight and high energy saving are reviewed. Attention is paid to both the so-called gyroscope-on-a-chip, which is a novel sensor, at the infantile stage, whose optical components are monolithically integrated on a single indium phosphide chip, and to a new ultra-high Q ring resonator for gyro applications with a configuration including a 1D photonic crystal in the resonant path. The emerging field of the gyros based on passive ring cavities, which have already shown performance comparable with that of optical fiber gyros, is also discussed.

Analysis of coupled resonator optical waveguide gyroscope based on periodically modulated coupling and circumferences

“…Optoelectronic gyroscopes have been widely studied because their resolutions are less than 10°/h and they have the advantages of low cost, low energy consumption, and easy on-chip integration; many new types of optoelectronic gyroscopes have been proposed thus far [1], such as the resonator micro optic gyroscope (RMOG) with a waveguide-type ring resonator and the InP ring resonator gyroscope. The resolution of the RMOG is 0.46°/s or better, but its footprint is 1-10 cm [2][3][4], which would be slightly greater for handheld devices.…”

Effect of Static Disorder on Sensitivity of Coupled Resonator Optical Waveguide Gyroscopes

“…CROW gyroscopes are one of a number of proposed designs in recent years for chip based integrated micro-optical gyroscopes [11]- [14]. All of these diverse avenues of research in micro-optical gyroscopes are aimed at satisfying the growing need for highly senstive portable gyros, which can not be satisfied by current commercial gyroscope technologies: Although FOGs [15] and ring laser gyroscopes (RLGs) [16] are able to achieve the necessary sensitivities for both inertial navigation and tactical applications they can not be integrated into small portable devices such as smartphones or drones because of their relatively large size and weight.…”

On-chip tunable dispersion in a ring laser gyroscope for enhanced rotation sensing

“…Chip-scale optical inertial rotation sensors based on Sagnac effect [1] have distinct advantages in aspects of physical size, weight, power consumption, and cost and have potential to become the next-generation optical gyroscopes after ring laser gyro (RLG) and fiber optic gyro (FOG) [2][3][4][5]. Nevertheless, accumulated phase shift in the microring resonator resulted from Sagnac effect is directly proportional to the area of the resonator.…”