Preliminary assessment of the new routes towards a navigation grade photonic chip-scale gyroscope

The autonomous navigation of vehicles, aircraft, spacecraft, and other very complex systems critically depends on gyroscopes and their performance. Applications that require high performance, typically identified as navigation grade, are currently mainly covered by extremely accurate bulk photonic and electromechanical sensors, which, however, are partially incompatible with some emerging application domains, such as those deriving from the New Space Economy. Consequently, interest in miniaturized chip-scale gyroscopes is progressively growing, with specific attention to compatibility with harsh environments. The miniaturization of photonic gyroscopes up to their at least partial integration on chip is an interesting technological challenge in this context.The paper critically analyzes the emerging approaches potentially capable of enabling the demonstration of a navigation grade photonic chip-scale gyroscope. The results of our analysis show that the enabling technologies available today make a navigation grade photonic gyroscope technically feasible with dimensional features comparable to those of microelectromechanical gyroscopes, but at the same time, it highlights that various technological challenges must be faced to achieve experimental demonstration.