Emcore’s EN-300 FOG IMU in high-rate production

EN-300 Precision Fiber Optic IMU/INS (Photo: Emcore)

Emcore Corp.’s EN-300 FOG (fiber optic gyro) inertial measurement unit (IMU) is now in high-rate production and is broadly available for purchase with 12-week lead times. The EN-300 was announced in April.

Based in Alhambra, California, Emcore providees advanced mixed-signal products that serve the aerospace, defense and broadband communications markets.

Emcore’s EN-300 offers up to 10 times the bias performance of legacy systems in a form, fit and function compatible package, the company said. This improved performance makes the EN-300 suitable for GPS-denied navigation, precise targeting and line-of-sight stabilization requirements for unmanned aerial vehicles as well as other demanding applications.

Emcore has successfully completed a comprehensive Design Verification Testing (DVT) regimen over tough environmental conditions and has provided numerous proof-of-technology IMUs globally to defense contractor primes and aerospace customers seeking to upgrade their platforms and systems. Emcore is now expanding production of the EN-300 with strict manufacturing process and quality controls in place to enhance on-time delivery and specification compliance.

“Given the strong market interest and demand, we are extremely pleased to announce the production ramp-up and broad availability for purchase of the EN-300,” said David Hoyh, Emcore’s director of sales & marketing for navigation products. “Emcore’s vertical integration creates unique capabilities that enable us to deliver the higher level of performance demanded by the market, coupled with greater precision and lower cost to further benefit our customers.”

According to Emcore, the EN-300 precision FOG IMU is a three-axis, closed-loop design using the Company’s proprietary, solid-state FOG transceiver with advanced integrated optics, offering improved reliability and lower cost than legacy IMUs. It can be ordered with performance options tailored to specific customer requirements.

The COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) EN-300-3 model achieves bias in-run stability as low as 0.04 degree/hr with ARW (Angle Random Walk) of 0.015 degree/rt-hr. The non-ITAR EN-300 is superior in performance to older generation such as the closed-loop LN-200 IMU or open-loop KVH 1750 series IMU units that have higher bias over temperature drift.