Experimental countermeasures to reduce the backscattering noise in an InP hybrid optical gyroscope

Abstract

Miniaturization of the currently available medium- and high-performance angular velocity sensors is crucial for aerospace and defense industry. To face this technological challenge, we are investigating a new gyro, called gyroscope-on-chip (GoC), based on the InP photonic integrated circuits technology. The sensor we refer includes a passive ring resonator with a Q greater than one million and several optical/optoelectronic components all monolithically integrated on a single InP chip. Recent progress on the demonstration of the GoC is reported in this paper. In particular, the configuration of the readout circuit and the countermeasures against the backscattering noise are discussed.