Interferometric Fiber Optic Gyroscope Dead Band Suppression

The dead band at small rotation rate in the closed-loop interferometric fiber optic gyroscope (IFOG) is eliminated. The feedback-voltage dependent error causing the dead band is suppressed by applying a randomized voltage step to the phase modulator. A theoretical model is developed to analyze the error in comparison with the measured dead band. The experimental results with the suppression scheme implemented show no evidence of dead band at the rate of 0.001 deg/h.