Silicon Photonics Inertial Navigation Systems (SPINS)

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Development of miniature, lightweight photonic integrated circuit (PIC) based inertial navigation systems with relevance across industry sectors, including mobile electronics and autonomous vehicles, especially in aerospace, defence, and automobiles. These require lightweight, low-power systems with highly accurate determination of position and (angular) velocity. Key components are gyroscopes (and accelerometers) for determining rotation rate (motion), implemented with MEMS or all-optical components. The latter have the advantage of being fast, with better immunity to EM interference and mechanical vibration. Current implementations, such as the fiber-optic or ring-laser gyroscopes work on the principal of the Sagnac effect, which yields measurable interference (or mode splitting), for counter-propagating optical signals in a closed-system, undergoing rotation or acceleration. These are typically constructed from rather bulky, discrete optoelectronic components, all of which adds volume and weight to systems. Silicon photonics is an ideal candidate for the integration and miniaturization of these systems, owing to maturity of the CMOS fabrication process, which enables low-cost devices with extremely small footprints and low weight. This project will involve design, fabrication, and characterisation/concept demonstration of a fully integrated PIC package, comprising of a miniature III-V laser coupled to a silicon photonics 'engine' (waveguide-based Sagnac loop and photodetector).