Further cost reduction of the fiber optic gyroscope is necessary to meet the economic requirements of land navigation systems. Previous concentration was on the reduction of the number of splices and component improvements in the open-loop minimum configuration Now non-essential components and splices are eliminated The source-detector coupler is not part of the Sagnac interferometer, and serves solely to direct light from the interferometer into the output photo-detector. Many commercial laser diodes incorporate a back-facet photodetector to monitor laser intensity. The signal returned from the Sagnac traverses the laser, and can be detected at this photo-detector. The gyro signal can be distinguished from the laser signal by the bias modulation applied in the interferometer. Configuring a gyro in this manner eliminates a directional coupler and the separate photo-detector, as well as up to two fiber splices in an all-fiber gyroscope.A production , open-loop fiber optic gyroscope has been modified to demonstrate this principal. The gyroscope exhibits performance comparable to the conventional minimum configuration.
An all-fiber, open-loop FOG design with digital signal processing electronics for the control, demodulation, and calibration is presented along with typical performance data.
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