New highly birefringent polarization fiber for compact fiber-optic gyroscope

10 Mar 2021

Lannion, France – 04/03/2021 - iXblue Photonics releases a highly birefringent polarization fiber targeting high-volume production of compact fiber-optic gyroscope operating at 1550 nm. This fiber, based on 30 years’ experience in Polarization Maintaining Gyro fiber, features the highest birefringence, and shortest beath length available in the industry - 0.9 mm at 633 nm. Thus it offers high Polarization Extinction Ration for fiber-optic gyro coils, even with extremely small radius (below 30 mm). This record birefringence has no impact on the other key optical specifications as attenuation, mode field diameter and numerical aperture remain the same to ensure low loss and excellent coupling under bent configuration.

“Thanks to our Tiger type fiber - also called elliptical clad - we have been able to work on the material composition of the clad in order to increase the birefringence stress and maintain a perfect round shape for the core”, explains Thomas Villedieu, Product Manager at iXblue Photonics. “With other technics, you do not get such level of flexibility. For instance, with Panda type fibers you are quickly limited by the size of the stress rods and Bow-Tie type leads to severe deformation of the core. We also worked on the clad shape in order to get good recognition by standard PM splicing equipment, the spliceability with standard PM panda fiber is excellent which is a key point for seamless integration at our customers manufacturing floor”.

This new “IB” fiber (read “High Bi”, for high birefringence) - opens new possibilities for FOG manufacturers as they are now able to manufacture tiny coils while keeping a good PER over operational temperature range. The external coating diameter is reduced to a remarkable 128 µm value for an 80 µm clad fiber, helping further to reduce the outside size of coils and limiting the Shupe effect.

“With FOG technology spreading to all different fields, boosted by the autonomous navigation market across all type of environments (land, air and sea) the need for smaller and smaller gyros is increasing. We are very pleased to introduce this fiber that should become a new reference for compact gyros. Initial customers’ feedbacks are enthusiastic, as they report an increase by more than 5 dB of the PER of their systems“, comments Nicephore Nicolas, Business Development Manager for iXblue Photonics fiber division.

Fiber is in stock and ready for shipping (product reference is IXF-PMG-IB-1550). Customization to meet specific customer needs is possible.

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