Three-Axis Interferometric Fiber Optic Gyroscope With Silica Integrated Coupler Chip

Chip-scale interferometric fiber optic gyroscope (IFOG) has caught growing attention for its huge application potential in the low-cost consumer electronics market. In this article, a novel three-axis IFOG is proposed and assembled with an integrated coupler chip (ICC) fabricated on the silica platform. The ICC realizes bidirectionally multichannel optical interconnection without waveguide crossings. The test results indicate the weak wavelength dependence and comparatively low insertion loss at $0.85 \mu \text{m}$ of the ICC. With $\sim $ 900-m polarization-maintaining fiber coils, the three-axis IFOG exhibits a long-term stability of $< 0.16^{\circ }$ /h, which satisfies the requirements of the tactical grade systems. The novel IFOG scheme with ICC paves the way for the research on chip-scale multiaxis IFOGs.