Do you Know What Digital Fiber Optic Gyro is?

1. What is Digital Fiber Optic Gyroscope (DFOG)?

DFOG, short for Digital FOG or Digital Fiber Optic Gyroscope, is a patent-pending technology that has been jointly developed by two research institutions for more than 25 years. DFOG was created to meet the need for a smaisller, more cost-effective FOG while improving reliability and accuracy.
This technological breakthrough opens up new opportunities for commercial and defense applications that require always-available, ultra-precision, orientation and navigation.

2. Next generation fiber optic gyroscope

Fiber optic gyroscopes set a high standard for inertial navigation. Their performance and accuracy have been recognized for decades, with each generation offering innovative improvements.
The first generation of FOG, introduced in 1976, used analog signals and analog signal processing. The second generation was developed in 1994 and is still in use today. It improves on the first generation with a hybrid approach, using analog signals in the coil and digital signal processing.
In 2021, FOG has evolved into digital FOG. The third-generation FOG stands out for its full digitalization, offering increased performance and reliability while reducing size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) by 40%.

3. How does a digital fiber gyroscope work?

The innovations that make DFOG possible are three different but complementary technologies that have been developed to improve the capabilities of fiber optic gyroscopes.

3.1 Digital modulation technology

DFOG uses specially developed digital modulation technology to transmit spread spectrum signals through coils. The new digital modulation technology introduced in DFOG technology allows for variable errors in operation in the measurement coil and eliminates errors from the measurement. This makes DFOG more stable and reliable than traditional FOG. It also allows the use of smaller fiber optic gyroscopes with smaller coil lengths to achieve the accuracy of fiber optic gyroscopes with longer coils.

3.2 Revolutionary optical chip

By integrating five sensors into a single chip and removing all fiber connectors, size, weight and power consumption are greatly reduced, while reliability and performance are significantly improved.

3.3 Specially designed optical coils

DFOG uses a specially designed closed-loop optical coil designed to take full advantage of digital modulation technology. The design allows optimal sensing of variable coil errors in operation using new digital modulation techniques. It also provides a very high level of protection for optical components against shock and vibration.

4. What are the advantages of digital fiber optic gyro?

For the past two decades, fiber optic gyroscopes have been the gyroscopes of choice for high-performance inertial navigation systems (INS). But their high cost and large size make them unsuitable for many applications. DFOG alleviates these limitations while significantly improving accuracy and reliability.
DFOG makes high-precision inertial navigation affordable for a wide range of applications, including subsea, surveying, Marine, robotics, aerospace and space.

5. Summary

Ericco provides customers worldwide with high-performance, low-cost fiber optic gyroscopes (FOG) to measure angular rates. Quality and after-sales service are well guaranteed. We not only provide standard fiber optic gyroscopes, but also customize fiber optic gyroscopes according to customers' special requirements. Fiber optic gyroscopes (FOG) have many important applications in navigation and positioning systems, angular rate sensors, stabilizers, and, more recently, navigation backup systems for autonomous vehicles in areas not accessible by gps. Our FOG program has been awarded multiple patents, and fiber optic and MEMS gyroscopes set new benchmarks for accurate and economical guidance, navigation, and control in a variety of applications. ER-FOG-50, ER-FOG-60, ER-FOG-70 these are very popular models, if you have any needs, feel free to contact us.