Abstract
Highly sensitive gyroscopes are imperative for inertial navigation. Among all kinds of approaches, passive fiber gyros based on Sagnac effect are extensively used. One of the key components inside fiber gyros is the photonic chip mastering optical signal processing. In this thesis, we focus on developing silicon-based integrated photonics chips for miniaturized optical gyroscopes. The basic idea is to integrate all optical components, except for the long fiber, on a single silicon chip through CMOS technology. Such integration has advantages in reducing the cost of individual component package and perhaps, the effort of alignment. Moreover, unlike other materials such as silica and lithium niobate, silicon can be utilized to make highly-confined waveguide (silicon photonics wires), dramatically reducing the footprint of the device. Potentially, silicon photonics can monolithically integrate signal-processing circuits on a single chip. Trough mature IC fabrication technology, the production cost could decrease and the device performance improves. Several simulation tools including FimmWave, FimmProp, BPM, FDTD, and Medici were used for designing the device, and the fabrication was though a CMOS-compatible process. After the device was fabricated, we measured the electronic and optics characteristics. The phase modulation speed could be as high as 80MHz and the ER (Extinction ratio) of Polarization-Diversity Coupler is 23dB. The measured insertion loss is about 14dB.