Optical Engineering 49(11), 114401 (November 2010)
Study of modulation phase drift in an interferometric
fiber optic gyroscope
Wei Wang
Junlong Wang
China Academy of Aerospace Electronics
Technology
No.149 North Xiaotun Road
Fengtai, Beijing 100166, China
E-mail: bjatoe@163.com
1 Introduction
A multifunction integrated optic device (MIOD) is generally
utilized in a digital closed-loop interferometric fiber optic gy-
roscope (IFOG), and the scale-factor nonlinearity of the gyro
can amount to 10×10 −6 due to the phase bias and feedback
function of the MIOD. To achieve scale-factor stability, the
ratio of the feedback signal received by MIOD to the actual
signal imposed on the light should be kept almost constant;
otherwise, the divergence between the feedback signal and
the actuating signal, that is, the modulation phase drift, will
introduce disturbance into the output of IFOG. Though the
dc drift in LiNbO3 intensity modulators for communication
has been researched in the last decades,1 the influence of the
modulation phase drift in the MIOD on an IFOG has never
been reported to our knowledge. In this work, the signal de-
formation caused by modulation phase drift is observed in
the output of the IFOG’s detector, and the potential influence
of the modulation phase drift on the IFOG is analyzed. The
source of modulation phase drift is identified in the gradual
divergence of the actuating signal from the received signal in
the MIOD. The mechanism of the that divergence is deduced,
and some suppression methods are proposed and validated
experimentally.
2 Modulation Phase Drift in an IFOG
The MIOD, fabricated by annealing proton exchange, is a key
device in the digital closed-loop IFOG circuit shown in Fig. 1,
due to its integration of polarizer, modulator, and coupler. The
phase modulation function of the MIOD produces the closed
loop in the IFOG, and as a result, the scale of the IFOG
is extended and the stability of the scale factor is improved
significantly.
The IFOG in Fig. 1 is assumed to be modulated by a
square wave. The output voltage of the detector is
Vd = G d I0 [1 + cos(φs + φb + φ f )],
where I0 is the interference intensity received by the de-
tector without modulation waves; G d is a comprehensive
0091-3286/2010/$25.00 
C 2010 SPIE
Optical Engineering
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Abstract. Modulation phase drift is observed in the interferometric fiber
optic gyroscope (IFOG) and is attributed to the use of a multifunction
integrated optical device. The influence of modulation phase drift on the
IFOG’s properties is analyzed in theory. The analysis results indicate
that the drift causes a nonnegligible dead zone in the IFOG’s response.
To suppress the drift, three methods are proposed and validated exper-
imentally. It is confirmed that a multifunction integrated optical device
without a buffer layer can suppress the modulation phase drift effectively.

C 2010 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers. [DOI: 10.1117/1.3509360]
Subject terms: modulation phase drift; buffer layer; multifunction integrated optical
device (MIOD); interferometric fiber optic gyroscope.
Paper 100449R received Jun. 4, 2010; revised manuscript received Sep. 12, 2010;
accepted for publication Sep. 23, 2010; published online Nov. 17, 2010.
coefficient, in which the conversion efficiency of the de-
tector and the electronic gain are taken into consideration;
φb is the modulation amplitude, that is, the phase bias; and
φs (t),φ f (t) are the Sagnac phase shift and the feedback phase
difference, respectively. The sum of the Sagnac phase shift
and the feedback phase difference is nearly zero. Thus, the
output voltage of the detector should be a constant during
one step of the modulation square waveform, as illustrated in
Fig. 2. In practice, however, the output voltage of the detec-
tor is not a constant during one step, but drifts as shown in
Fig. 3. The deformation of the output signal is attributed to
the modulation phase dirft of the MIOD.
From the output waveform of the detector, the actual mod-
ulation signal of the MIOD can be deduced. The actual modu-
lation waveform imposed on the light wave is shown in Fig. 4.
During the time from 0 to τ (the transit time of the light in
the fiber coil), the output of the detector increases gradually,
which means that the phase bias decreases gradually. During
the time from τ to 2τ , the sign of the phase bias is opposite
to that from 0 to τ , and the increasing output of the detector
corresponds to the increasing bias phase. The actual phase
bias during the periods from 2τ to 3τ , from 3τ to 4τ , and so
on, may be deduced by analogy. From the preceding deduc-
tion, the modulation signal is disturbed by an excess signal,
which is proportional to the amplitude of the modulation
wave.
The disturbing signal waveform on the IFOG is illustrated
in Fig. 5. At rest, taking the modulation phase drift φ caused
by the disturbing signal into consideration, the drift of the
detector signal is
V = G d I0 [1 + cos(φb − φ/2)]
− G d I0 [1 + cos(φb + φ/2)]
(1) = 2G d I0 sin(φ/2). (2)
According to Eq. (2), the modulation phase drift induced by
the disturbing signal is
φ = 2 arcsin(V /2G d I0 ). (3)
114401-1 November 2010/Vol. 49(11)
 Wang and Wang: Study of modulation phase drift in an interferometric . . .

Fig. 1 IFOG configuration with a MIOD.

Fig. 3 The measured detector signal (bottom waveform) with square-
wave biasing modulation (top waveform).

3 The Influence of the Modulation Phase Drift on Because φ f = H C(k), the temporal average form of Eq. (5)
the IFOG is
Closed-loop IFOGs incorporating a MIOD with phase drift  k   k   
  k
exhibit a dead zone at very low rotation rates. The results C(i) = C(i − 1) + G φs (i − 1)
of a typical dead-zone measurement are shown in Fig. 6. i=1 i=1 i=1
The size of the dead zone is proportional to the phase  
drift φ. 
k

When the modulation signal is disturbed by the noise − G H C(i − 1)

signal φ, the functional schematic of the closed-loop IFOG i=1
is shown in Fig. 7, where C(k) is the output of the IFOG  

k
at clock time k; G and H are the gain of the front and the − G φ(i − 1) . (6)
feedback channel, respectively; and D symbolizes a unit time i=1
delay.
The digital closed-loop modulation character of the IFOG When rotation rate is close to zero, we obtain the approxi-
can be presented as mation
 k   k 
 
C(i) ≈ C(i − 1) . (7)
C(k + 1) = C(k) + G sin φ(k) sin φb
  i=1 i=1
G Substituting Eq. (7) into Eq. (6) gives
= C(k) + G φ(k) − [φ(k)]3 sin φb , (4)
6  k   k   k 
  
φs (i − 1) ≈ H C(i − 1) + φ(i − 1) .
where φ(k) = φs (k) − φ f (k) − φ(k). When φ(k) is small i=1 i=1 i=1
enough and φb = π/2, the modulation characteristic (8)
becomes
Equation (8) can be simply presented as
C(k) = C(k − 1) + Gφ(k − 1). (5) φs  ≈ H C + φ (9)

Fig. 4 The actual modulation waveform and the response of the

Fig. 2 The response of the IFOG with square-wave modulation. detector.

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 Wang and Wang: Study of modulation phase drift in an interferometric . . .

Fig. 5 The disturbing signal waveform in square-wave biasing modulation.

From Eq. (9), it can be seen that the IFOG’s output includes
the feedback phase H C (which equals the Sagnac phase
difference) and the modulation phase drift φ induced by
the disturbing signal.
In the digital closed-loop scheme, the bias modulation
signal shifts the operation point either by π /2 or by 3π /2.
Because the phase drift depends on the amplitude of the mod-
ulation signal, there exist two different phase drifts, φ3π/2
and φπ/2 , which are the modulation phase drift at the bias
points π /2 and 3π /2, respectively, as shown in Fig. 8. If there
is no modulation phase drift and the IFOG operates normally
Fig. 7 Functional schematic of a closed-loop IFOG when gyro output
with a positive input rate, the phase ramp slowly increases contains the phase drift φ.
and the correct rotation rate is calculated and output. Sup-
pose, however, that phase drift exists and the input rotation
rate is lower than the phase drift φπ/2 , but higher than the
phase drift φ3π/2 . Then the phase ramp increases slowly
from zero as long as π /2 modulation is present, but as soon
as the phase ramp reaches 2π , where the bias point transits to
3π /2, the ramp changes its sign due to the phase drift φ3π/2
and returns immediately to the bias point π /2, where the sign
changes again due to the phase drift φπ/2 .2 So the ramp
oscillates between φ3π/2 and φπ/2 , and the output of the
gyro is zero. In this case, the response of the IFOG dwells in
the dead zone, as shown in Fig. 9.
The usual method to eliminate the dead zone is signal
dither,3, 4 and it is adopted here. A periodic square wave

Fig. 8 Digital phase ramp and phase drift induced by MIOD.

Fig. 6 Gyro output responding to low rotation rate with disturbing

signal. Fig. 9 The phase ramp of the gyro dwelling in the deadzone.

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 Wang and Wang: Study of modulation phase drift in an interferometric . . .

Table 1 Test data on MIOD alternatives.

Sample Buffer V (mV) Dead-Zone width

No. Layer (deg/h)

1 SiO2 22.8 5.0

2 SiO2 60.2 12

3 SiO2 + Si3 N4 20.4 4.0

4 SiO2 + Si3 N4 14.2 3.0

Fig. 10 Mobile charges and induced electric field.
5 SiO2 + Si3 N4 12.2 2.5

6 SiO2 + Si3 N4 18.8 3.7

7 SiOx N1 − x 8.8 1.5

signal Df , the mean value of which is zero and the amplitude
of which is larger than the bias phase, is added to the feedback 8 SiOx N1 − x 6.4 1.1
loop synchronously with the bias modulation.3 The square 9 SiOx N1 − x 4.2 0.6
wave Df is expressed as
 10 SiOx N1 − x 7.4 1.2
φc , 1 ≤ i ≤ M/2,
D f (i) = i = 1, 2, 3, . . . , M,
−φc , M/2 < i ≤ M, 11 None 1.0 <0.01

(10) 12 None 0.8 <0.01

where φc is the amplitude of Df , and M is the period of Df . If 13 None 0.7 <0.01

|φc |  |φs |, then
|φs + φc |  |φ| , |φs − φc |  |φ|.
Therefore, even if the Sagnac phase difference is less than
the modulation phase drift, the ramp does not oscillate, so
that the gyro never dwells in the dead zone.
Although the electronic method can significantly reduce
the dead zone of the IFOGs, with this method it is difficult
to reduce the dead zone to <0.1 deg/h for a MIOD with
a large phase drift (V > 50 mV). In addition, the dither
signal added to bias and ramp will introduce a larger noise
error and increase the random walk of the IFOG.5 Thus, the
modulation phase drift φ should be reduced to achieve a
high-performance IFOG.
4 The Mechanism and Suppression
of Modulation Phase Drift
To decrease the absorption loss of the metal electrodes and
suppress the outdiffusion of Li + , a SiO2 buffer layer is in-
serted between the electrodes and the waveguide layer in
LiNbO3 -based MIODs. Many researches on LiNbO3 optical
intensity modulators and switches have shown that the SiO2
buffer layer is subject to contaminants such as OH − groups
and alkali-metal ions from the photoresist developers.6–8 It
is well known that these OH − groups and alkali-metal ions
are incorporated into SiO2 as network modifiers and act as
mobile species. As shown in Fig. 10, these OH − groups and
alkali ions in the SiO2 buffer layer can be easily pulled by the
modulation electric field and gathered under the electrodes,
building an induced electric field opposite to the modulating
electric field between the electrodes. Because the ions trans-
mit continuously under the modulation signal imposed on
the electrodes, the induced field increases and the total effec-
tive electric field applied to the waveguide drops gradually.
During a step of the modulation square wave, the dropping
voltage imposed on the light wave will reduce the bias phase,
thus the modulation phase drift occurs.
14 None 0.6 <0.01
(11)
In order to reduce modulation phase drift caused by a
contaminated buffer layer, three alternatives are considered:
(1) a, dual buffer layer consisting of a silica layer and a
Si3 N4 layer on top of it, (2) a SiOx N1 − x buffer layer, and
(3) no buffer layer. MIODs from four different wafers with
these alternative were assembled in an IFOG in turn. The
modulation phase drift and dead-zone characteristics of the
IFOGs with different MIODs are listed in Table 1. The data
in Table 1 indicate that the other choices of buffer layers
cause less phase drift than the silica buffer layer. The dead
zone of the IFOG including the MIOD with no buffer layer
can be reduced to less than 0.01 deg/h. Noticeably, the loss
and half-wave voltage of the MIOD with no buffer layer are
not deteriorated if proper electrode design is used.
Though removing the buffer layer is an effective method
to reduce modulation phase drift, it may compromise the
long-term reliability of the MIOD, because Li+ can diffuse
out easily and the electrode metal can diffuse directly into the
substrate. By all accounts, a buffer layer, such as SiOx N1 − x ,
should be included if the dead zone is tolerable in applications
where performance at low rotation rates is not critical.
5 Conclusions
Modulation phase drift is observed in IFOG systems. Its
source is the buffer layer of the multifunction integrated
optical device. The movement of the contaminant OH −
groups and alkali-metal ions in the buffer layer under the volt-
age between electrodes produces an induced electric field that
is opposite to the direction of the modulation field. Because
the ions transmit continuously, the induced field increases
and the total effective electric field applied to the waveguide
drops gradually, and thus likewise the bias phase imposed
on the light wave drifts. Because the phase drift causes a

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 Wang and Wang: Study of modulation phase drift in an interferometric . . .
nonnegligible dead zone in IFOGs, three methods to suppress
the phase drift in MIOD are proposed and validated. The re-
sults indicate that the IFOGs with the MIOD with no buffer
layer have the least modulation phase drift and the smallest
dead zone.
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