BULLPhROG: Bilayer Ultra-Low-Loss Photonic Resonant Optical Gyroscope

The proposed effort seeks to develop a low-SWaP tactical-grade optical gyroscope based on ultra-low-loss silicon nitride waveguides. Silicon nitride supports multiple waveguiding layers with low vertical transition losses and facilitates additional functionalities through heterogeneous integration of additional materials for sources and modulation. Phase I of the activity will develop a multi-layer photonics platform, fabricate the waveguide sensing coil, evaluate its performance in a gyroscope testbed, and investigate architectures for future integrated sources. The waveguide coil consists of a resonant structure to increase effective length and provide gyroscope sensitivity proportional to its Q factor. If selected in a potential Phase II endeavor, the project would deliver optical gyroscopes with heterogeneously integrated sources for evaluation in Army environments.