The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 30, 1995
Filed:
Dec. 22, 1989
Raymond Carroll, Andover, MA (US);
The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc., Cambridge, MA (US);
Abstract
A passive resonator gyroscope in which a laser beam is split into two equal intensity beams in a waveguide, each of the beams being coupled to counterpropagate around a fiber optic ring. The beams, after splitting, are frequency modulated with a voltage having a serrodyne waveform, the polarity of the voltage applied to the modulator for the one beam being opposite to the polarity of the modulating voltage applied to the modulator for other beam. The laser frequency is locked to the optical cavity half wave resonant frequency and when the laser is so locked, the modulating voltage is applied for a first period with one polarity and then for a second period of the same duration with the opposite polarity. The output beams from the optical fiber ring are combined in the waveguide and a portion of the combined optical beam is provided to a photodetector. A circuit connected to the photodetector determines the difference between the light impinging upon the photodetector during the first period and during the second period, this difference providing a measure of the Sagnac shift produced by the rotation of the fiber optic ring.