New Alternatives to GPS could Be Jamming- and Spoof-Proof

This year, two companies—Santa Clara, California-based Anello Photonics and Montreal-based One Silicon Chip Photonics (OSCP)—have introduced new gyroscope–on-a-chip navigation systems, allowing for precise heading and distance tracking without satellite signals.

Such inertial navigation is increasingly important today, because GPS is susceptible to jamming and spoofing, which can disrupt navigation or provide misleading location data. These problems have been well-documented in conflict zones, including Ukraine and the Middle East, where military operations have faced significant GPS interference. For drones, which rely on GPS for positioning, the loss of signal can be catastrophic, leaving them unable to navigate and sometimes resulting in crashes.

Optical gyroscopes have long been seen as an alternative navigation technology to satellite-based global navigation systems. Larger-sized units like ring-laser gyroscopes have been around since the 1970s. However, shrinking these devices down to chip-size was far easier said than done.

The optical gyroscopes produced starting in the mid-1970s had difficulties maintaining the necessary optical signal strength for precise rotation sensing. Shrinking them only made the signal-to-noise ratio worse. So, as most microelectronic devices followed the miniaturization pathway described by Moore’s Law, light-based gyroscopes remained big, bulky, and power hungry.

If you drive 100 kilometers, the system’s distance measurement will be accurate to within 100 meters, or 0.1 percent of the distance traveled.” —Mario Paniccia, Anello Photonics

That was the state of things until Caltechelectrical engineering and medical engineering professor Ali Hajimiri and his team made a breakthrough that overcame previous size and accuracy limitations. In a 2018 paper, they described how they created a solid-state gyroscope small enough to fit on a grain of rice. Like the optical gyroscopes that appeared before it, this gyroscope leveraged the Sagnac effect, a principle first demonstrated in 1913 by French physicist Georges Sagnac.

The Sagnac effect occurs when a beam of light is split into two and sent in opposite directions along a circular path. If the device rotates, one beam reaches the detector ahead of the other, allowing precise measurement of the rotation angle. Because this method does not rely on external signals, it is immune to electromagnetic interference, vibration, and cyberattacks via an open communication channel—making it an ideal solution for applications where GPS is unreliable or completely denied.

By introducing a technique for eliminating noise, Hajimiri and his colleagues were able to create an optical gyroscope that was one–five hundredth the size of commercially available fiber-optic gyroscopes and comparable in terms of sensitivity.

This pocket-size, chip-based optical gyroscope from Anello Photonics is just as accurate as bulkier versions.Anello Photonics

Anello and OSCP Enter the Market

Less than a decade after Hajimiri’s breakthrough, Anello Photonics and OSCP are now looking to reshape the navigation market with their gyroscope-based systems. They have introduced further refinements that allow more miniaturization without diminishing the gyroscopes’ effectiveness. Anello’s low-loss silicon nitride waveguides allow light to circulate longer within the gyroscope, improving signal strength and reducing error accumulation. Anello’s techniques further suppress other noise sources, so a smaller waveguide holding less light—and therefore a fainter signal—is still sufficient for accurate rotation readings.

The result, says Mario Paniccia, Anello CEO, was showcased at CES in 2024 and earlier this year. Paniccia explains that his company’s inertial measurement units (IMUs), which consist of three chip-based gyroscopes and additional components, fit in the palm of a person’s hand. They deliver high precision for multiple applications, including agriculture, where autonomous tractors must maintain perfectly straight furrows for up to 800 meters. Longer distances are also no problem for the navigation system, he says. “If you drive 100 kilometers,” says Paniccia, “the system’s distance measurement will be accurate to within 100 meters, or 0.1 percent of the distance traveled.”

OSCP is also making strides in miniaturized navigation technology. At CES 2025, OSCP founder and CEO Kazem Zandi unveiled an upgraded multi-gyroscope IMU that is half the size of its predecessor. “It’s not only smaller, but also more power efficient and less expensive,” said Zandi at the Las Vegas–based tech expo. “These gyroscopes can provide dead reckoning with location accuracy to within centimeters.”

Anello’s and OCSP’s IMUs are designed to work alongside GPS, constantly monitoring location inputs. If GPS interference is detected, artificial intelligence (AI) within either company’s system automatically shifts navigation control to the gyroscopes. “If, for example, you’re in New York,” explains Paniccia, “and the gyroscopes indicate that you’ve traveled 100 meters forward, but the GPS says you’re now in Texas, the algorithms know to port control over to the [gyroscope].”

According to Paniccia, Anello’s latest system was designed specifically for unmanned underwater and surface vehicles operating in the vastness of the open ocean, where no landmarks exist to assist navigation. “In the ocean, everything looks the same,” he says. In the maritime space, in which currents make navigation more complicated than tracking location on land or in the air, Paniccia says the Anello device’s location error is more like 3 or 4 percent of the distance traveled.

Paniccia says he envisions a future where miniaturized gyroscopes could be embedded into handheld devices for firefighters, allowing them to navigate through smoke-filled buildings where stairways and exits are no longer visible. “It will essentially be an electronic compass,” he says.