EMCORE awarded $3M contract to supply fiber-optic gyroscopes for airborne navigation

Designer and manufacturer of indium phosphide (InP) optical chips, components, subsystems, and systems for the broadband and specialty fiber-optics market, EMCORE Corporation (NASDAQ:EMKR; Alhambra, CA) was awarded a $3 million contract to supply fiber-optic gyroscope (FOG) modules to a major U.S. prime contractor for use in airborne navigation systems applications. The contract is for FOG modules based on EMCORE's EMP series that are expected to be shipped this year with the potential for additional FOG shipments totaling $15 million over a five-year period.

RELATED ARTICLE: Light-powered gyroscope has sub-millimeter dimensions

EMCORE says its FOG modules feature advanced integrated optics and closed-loop digital signal processing (DSP) electronics for higher accuracy, lower noise, greater efficiency, improved drift stability, and higher linearity than competing technologies. They use core Mixed-Signal technology with both analog and digital circuits combined on multiple chips, or even a single chip.

EMCORE FOGs operate over a broad distance range with a typical bias drift from .05 to .01 degrees per hour. Bias drift is an important measure of accuracy and precision of the FOG, with lower bias models delivering higher performance overall. EMCORE says its FOG technology also has broad application for land-based and maritime navigation systems.

"With the advancements in integrated optical packaging and rate sensor technology in our latest generation of FOGs, EMCORE has been able to achieve noise values that are two-times lower than the traditional implementation of FOG technology," said K.K. Wong, director of Fiber Optic Gyro Products for EMCORE. "This provides us a price-performance advantage that has enabled us to achieve deeper penetration into the market for airborne navigation and aeronautic systems applications," added Wong.

"This is a very important contract award for our navigation sensor business," said Jeffrey Rittichier, EMCORE's president and CEO. "This is an important validation of our Mixed-Signal optics strategy, and an application where we expect to see significant growth potential over the next several years."

EMCORE's optical technologies are designed for cable television (CATV) and fiber-to-the-premise (FTTP) networks, telecommunications and data centers, satellite communications, aerospace and defense, wireless networks, and broadcast and professional audio/video systems. EMCORE has fully vertically-integrated manufacturing capability and also provides contract design, foundry, and component packaging services and has InP wafer fabrication operations in Alhambra, and ISO 9001 certified manufacturing in Alhambra and Langfang, China.

SOURCE: EMCORE; http://investor.emcore.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=979127