Coil and gyro-level performance of Sagnac coils

Guidance of platforms in absence of GNSS signal is becoming increasingly more important. In the tactical domain, current Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) accumulate excessive position errors and are marginally useful when considered alone. To retain the precision strike capability, navigation grade IMUs must become available at low cost. Several gyro coils were wound in quadrupole pattern with three different Polarization Maintaining fibers. Coil-level and gyro-level performance data are presented. Coil optical loss, coherence, and polarization extinction ratio were measured. Coils were then integrated in the gyro test bed that allows closed loop operation. Bias drift and angle random walk were measured along with dynamic range and scale factor.