New Fiber Optic Gyroscope: More Precise, Smaller than a Grain of Rice
Engineers at the California Institute of Technology have created the world’s smallest 光纤陀螺仪 to aid in navigational sensing. Five hundred times smaller than a regular gyroscope, this new gyro can fit on a grain of rice. This research breakthrough could lead to more accurate fiber optic gyros compared to mechanical units.
什么是光学陀螺仪
Advanced fiber optic navigation technology is critical for aircraft, 导弹, unmanned aerial vehicles 和 ground vehicles. These machines 和 other platforms depend on 光纤陀螺仪s to operate safely.
它们是如何工作的?
A 光纤陀螺仪 detects changes in position or direction using the 萨尼亚克效应. In this way, an optical gyro functions similarly to a mechanical gyro. 然而, the optical gyro operates by using light passing through a coil of optical fiber.
Inside a typical optical gyroscope, a spooled-up optical fiber carries pulses of laser light. Some pulses move clockwise 和 others go counterclockwise. The gyro measures rotation by detecting tiny changes in how these pulses arrive at a sensor. Researchers have tried to create smaller optical gyros. 然而, as the size of the gyro shrinks, the signals from its sensor have grown weaker until they are drowned out by “noise” from scattered light.
团队做了什么
The Cal Tech research team designed a low-noise, photonic gyroscope. They etched light-guiding channels onto a two-square-millimeter silicon chip. These channels guide the light in each direction around a separate circle. This layout keeps scattered light from confusing the device’s sensors. The new design also reverses the light’s direction from time to time. This change helps to cancel out much of the related “noise.”
Optical gyroscopes that use the 萨尼亚克效应 to measure rotation could eventually be miniaturized onto nano-photonic platforms. 然而, 热波动, component drift 和 fabrication mismatch often limit the signal-to-noise ratio of these gyros. Because a microscale unit would have a weaker signal, researchers have not yet created an integrated nano-photonic 光纤陀螺仪.
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