EMCORE announces integration of PICs into its products
EMCORE Corporation, an independent provider of inertial navigation solutions to the aerospace and defense industry, has announced the advancement of Photonic Integrated Chip (PIC) technology and integration into all of the company’s open-loop fibre optic gyro (FOG)-based products.
The company says the PIC technology resulted from three years of development and began integration into EMCORE’s previous generation open-loop designs in late 2021 and throughout 2022, culminating with the launch of the TAC-450 Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), EMCORE's first IMU series with PIC Inside, and the new TAC-450 single- and multi-axis FOGs.
According to EMCORE, the PIC enables significantly improved reliability, unit-to-unit repeatability, durability, outstanding shock/vibration tolerance, and easier integration for exceptional navigation capability and environmental robustness in challenging applications. The company describes the technology as being based on the groundbreaking integrated optical chip that replaces individual fibre optic components with a silicon waveguide system that results in improved optical performance by simplifying the handmade optical couplers, polarizers, and two splices incorporated within a gyro assembly.
“Our PIC-based products are transforming EMCORE’s inertial sensor tactical product platform with more products sharing common software, electronics, and circuit boards,” said Matthew Vargas, Vice President of Sales for EMCORE. “We’ve seen broad acceptance in the market with the greater flexibility to tailor these precision PIC-based FOGs and IMUs to our customer’s needs,” added Mr. Vargas.
