Australia’s Advanced Navigation has been awarded a $306,631 Sovereign Industrial Capability Priority grant by the Australian Department of Defence to advance the country’s sovereign manufacturing capability for photonic chips.
Australia does not currently have commercial manufacturing capability for photonic chips, so the grant will help Advanced Navigation become the first company in the country to produce this technology… with capacity to manufacture 45,000 photonic chips per year.
“The technological breakthroughs enabled by photonic chips offer new opportunities for defence and commercial applications requiring always available, ultra-high accuracy, orientation and navigation, including subsea, marine, robotics, aerospace and space,” said Advanced Navigation CEO’s and co-founder, Xavier Orr.
“Advanced Navigation is honoured to be a major driver of this capability, and empower technologies to safeguard national security in a time defined by technological warfare and geopolitical uncertainty.”
The company uses photonic chips in its fibre-optic gyroscope (FOG)-based inertial navigation systems (INS), which are becoming increasingly vital for assured positioning, navigation and timing (A-PNT), especially for the military, which has needs such as autonomous capability, accurate positioning and high-value asset tracking.
According to Advanced Navigation, it is one of only four companies in the world to manufacture strategic-grade FOG components, and the only one to develop a completely digital FOG (DFOG).
Advanced Navigation’s DFOG amalgamates closed-loop FOG technology with digital modulation techniques and a new photonic chip to offer a 40% reduction in size, weight, power and cost.
