Fiber optic gyroscope with integrated light source

摘要

An integrated module (22) for a fiber optic gyroscope system (20) includes a fiber optic sensing coil (54) arranged to sense rotations about a sensing axis via the Sagnac effect comprises a substrate (24), a rare earth doped polymer optical waveguide (26) formed on the substrate (24) and a light source (38). The light source (38) and the optical waveguide (26) are arranged to produce counterpropagating light waves in the fiber optic sensing coil (54). The light source (38) may be formed as a rare earth doped polymer waveguide or as a rare earth doped glass waveguide.