An improved fiber-optic gyroscope (FOG) is proposed for enhancing the optical measurement sensitivity through the application of a heterodyne effect. The improved FOG is characterized by the use of a dual-injection polarization-maintaining 33 directional coupler which is configured to receive a pair of source light beams that are injected thereinto in a bi-directional manner. The forward-injected light beam is used to be split into a pair of interrogating beams for use by a coiled optical fiber to implement the detection and measurement of the Sagnac effect due to a rotational movement. On the other hand, the backward-injected light beam is used to be mixed with the paired interrogating beams that have passed through and returned from the coiled optical fiber to thereby provide a heterodyne effect that can boost the differential optical power amplitude of the paired interrogating beams, thereby enhancing the optical measurement sensitivity of the FOG application.

A photonic integrated circuit (PIC) comprises at least two optical circuits disposed on the PIC, two or more optical interfaces each configured to provide a connection to at least one external optical component, and a layout arrangement of the at least two optical circuits on the PIC, the layout arrangement configured such that the two or more optical interfaces are situated in at least one local group of optical interfaces, and the at least one local group of optical interfaces is located on at least one facet of the PIC. The at least two optical circuits may comprise a set of N single-axis 22 optical fiber optic gyroscope (FOG) circuits for use as a multi-axis FOG assembly in an inertial management unit (IMU) or an inertial navigation system (INS).

An optical gyroscope assembly for measuring a rotation rate. The optical gyroscope assembly includes a first multimode interferometer with an input for receiving light and two outputs, each connected to a second light guide; a ring resonator on each of the second light guides; a second multimode interferometer with two inputs, each connected to one of the second light guides, and two outputs, each connected to a third light guide; and a third multimode interferometer with two inputs, each connected to one of the third light guides, and two outputs, each connected to a fourth light guide.

One or more phase modulators in an optical gyroscope operate on two counter-propagating beams to introduce a phase shift between the beams before the beams are interferometrically combined to generate a rotation signal. A signal generator generates first and second modulation frequencies to drive the phase modulators. The first modulation frequency in isolation biases the rotation signal at an operating point sensitive to rotation, and the second modulation frequency in isolation biases the rotation signal at an operating point insensitive to rotation. One or more control integrated circuits (ICs) isolate a first portion of the rotation signal associated with the first modulation frequency and a second portion of the rotation signal associated with the second modulation frequency. The control ICs determine a difference between the first and second portions of the rotation signal to remove one or more bias instabilities from the first portion of the rotation signal.