Advanced Fiber Winding and Design Techniques

High accuracy angular measurements have been accomplished with fiber gyros having thermally compensated coils wound with PM fiber. When these types of coils are wound in small diameters, higher bending stresses, a greater number of fiber cross-overs, and reduced rotation sensitivity combine to degrade gyro perforamnce through increased bending losses and polarization crosstalk. These cause increased noise and bias uncertainty. Our proposal presents innovative solutions to these problems. We intend to demonstrate a tension insensitive, thermally compensated winding approach. In Phase I, we will utilize our proposed innovations to design and fabricate a number of ultra-miniature fiber sensing coils (OD<1inch) and verify their performance over temperature using both isolated and "in-gyro" test configurations. In Phase II, we will optimize the design parameters critical to performance, develop detailed processes, wind numerous coils (enough for accurate statistics to be performed) and verify their performance via tests within gyro circuits. Anticipated Benefits: A small-volume low-cost fiber gyro, with its inherent ruggedness, long-life and high accuracy is highly applicable to commercial markets involving automotive, aviation, navigation & control, industrial control, autonomous robotics, and tracking antenna systems.