Develop a high performance Y-branch dual phase Lithium niobate modulator integrated optical circuits (IOC) with advanced feature that enables fine tuning of optical power splitting ratio after assembly for high-performance Interferometric fiber-optic gyroscopes.
Benefit: The key component for the interferometric fiber-optic gyroscopes (IFOGs) used in inertial navigation systems is the Y-branch dual phase Lithium niobate modulator integrated optical circuit (IOC). The precision of the parent inertial sensors is limited by this non-ideal behavior of he IOC. Ideal Y-branch IFOG-IOC is expected to have wide defense and commercial navigation applications. While this technology is aimed at military applications, phase modulators are heavily used in many optical circuit applications, including in telecom industry hardware. A phase modulator with split ratio tunability is likely to bring value to many existing commercial applications, such as optical internet, satellite communications, and electric field sensing. Also, technology meeting the needs of this topic could be leveraged to bring IFOG technology toward a price point that could make it more attractive to the commercial markets for land, sea, and aerial systems, including unmanned and autonomous systems.
Keywords: waveguides, waveguides, Integrated Optical Circuit, Fiber-Optic Gyroscope, inertial sensor, Lithium Niobate, Phase Modulator
