Abstract
In the following paper, we present an industry perspective of inertial sensors for navigation purposes driven by applications and customer needs. Microelectromechanical system (MEMS) inertial sensors have revolutionized consumer, automotive, and industrial applications and they have started to fulfill the high end tactical grade performance requirements of hybrid navigation systems on a series production scale. The Fiber Optic Gyroscope (FOG) technology, on the other hand, is further pushed into the near navigation grade performance region and beyond. Each technology has its special pros and cons making it more or less suitable for specific applications. In our overview paper, we present latest improvements at NG LITEF in tactical and navigation grade MEMS accelerometers, MEMS gyroscopes, and Fiber Optic Gyroscopes, based on our long-term experience in the field. We demonstrate how accelerometer performance has improved by switching from wet etching to deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) technology. For MEMS gyroscopes, we show that better than 1°/h series production devices are within reach, and for FOGs we present how limitations in noise performance were overcome by signal processing. The paper also intends a comparison of the different technologies, emphasizing suitability for different navigation applications, thus providing guidance to system engineers.
Highlights
As an industry provider of navigation systems, gyrocompasses and attitude and heading reference systems (AHRS), we start our discussion driven by industry practice and long term experience by introducing the basic inertial building blocks, turn to specific inertial system level requirements driven by customers and, at the end of this section, introduce the inertial sensor technologies we provide for our series products based on several decades of experience in the field
For the targeted tactical-grade targeted tactical-grade performance, we found the measures to be by far sufficient, it is performance, we found the measures to be by far sufficient, it is evident that a quad mass evident that a quad mass design could be superior for higher-precision MEMS gyros as they are not design could be superior for higher-precision MEMS gyros as they are force balanced, but only force balanced, and torque balanced with respect to an outer frame [24]
For more than 25 years, NG LITEF has been continuously improving its Fiber Optic Gyroscope products based on its breakthrough closed loop signal processing technology with random modulation and auxiliary control loops [13], the Multifunction Integrated Optics Chip (MIOC or I/O Chip) and dedicated coil winding and potting technology
Summary
As an industry provider of navigation systems, gyrocompasses and attitude and heading reference systems (AHRS), we start our discussion driven by industry practice and long term experience by introducing the basic inertial building blocks, turn to specific inertial system level requirements driven by customers and, at the end of this section, introduce the inertial sensor technologies we provide for our series products based on several decades of experience in the field. For more than 25 years, NG LITEF has been continuously improving its Fiber Optic Gyroscope products based on its breakthrough closed loop signal processing technology with random modulation and auxiliary control loops [13], the Multifunction Integrated Optics Chip (MIOC or I/O Chip) and dedicated coil winding and potting technology. LITEF AHRS, marine and land navigation products [20]; and (ii) the 1◦ /h to 6◦ /h class of single axis μFORS FOGs suitable e.g., to build dedicated IMUs and for stabilization applications operating under harsh environmental conditions. Gyroscopes and for systems based on our FOGs. The MIOCs are manufactured using the annealed proton-exchange technique on x-cut Lithium Niobate wafers [34] and integrate the standard functions of (i) a polarizer; (ii) a main coupler/beam splitter; and (iii) a broadband electro-optical push-pull phase modulator on a single chip.
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