Failure analysis and degradation-based reliability assessment of a fiber optic gyroscope

Fiber optic gyroscope (FOG) is an essential component of the photoelectric equipment servo system, and its performance degradation during operation can result in the failure of overall equipment causing undesired safety concerns. Therefore, the failure mode, effects, and criticality analysis (FMECA) approach is used in this paper to conduct the degradation-based reliability modeling and assessment of the device and to identify its weakest link. The applied approach for the FOG device indicates its high reliability within 7000 hours of operation being consistent with the actual engineering. The proposed method and analysis result presented in this research can provide a reference for investigations on the reliability of FOG.