Design, fabrication, and characterization of microring resonators used in micro gyroscopes

Abstract

Optical gyroscopes have been of great interest in navigation fields due to their wide dynamic range, high accuracy, and immunization of the mechanical abrasion, friction and stress. Optical gyroscopes include ring laser gyroscopes, interferometric fiber-optic gyroscopes, and micro sensor inertial measurement units. In which, micro sensor inertial measurement units are attracting more and more attention due to their low cost, small size, and great potential in military and commercial applications where shock, resistance, and compact measurement condition are required. ☐ To this end, my work focuses on studying one of the important micro sensor inertial measurement units, microring optical gyro. In this thesis, I first describe the working principle of the microiring optical gyros. Then, I analyze the properties of microring resonators, which are the key elements of microring optical gyros, using the finite-difference time-domain method and the coupled mode theory. After that, I present the fabrication of microring resonators. Finally, I characterize the fabricated structures and compare them with the theoretical results.