Superconducting Josephson junction gyroscope apparatus

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved gyroscope apparatus suitable for use in guidance and navigation systems utilizing the phase change of election pairs in a superconducting ring.
Another object of the invention is to provide an improved apparatus for precisely measuring the rotation rate of a vehicle by monitoring the phase change of Cooper-paired electrons.
Still another object is to provide a superconducting gyroscope which will accurately measure very small changes in angular rate of motion.
A further object is to provide a gyroscope which affords a considerable reduction in size and weight relative to prior art devices, and which has lower manufacturing and maintenance costs.
A still further object is to provide a gyroscope apparatus suitable for a wide range of applications including missiles, aircraft, surface and subsurface ships and similar platforms.
Briefly, these and other objects and aspects of the invention are achieved with a small solid state gyro utilizing a thin-film superconducting ring with a Josephson junction interposed in the ring to detect rotational motion about its input or sensitive axis.
The sensing mechanism is a persistent current of Cooper-paired electrons traveling around the ring accumulating a phase change due to rotational motion about its sensitive axis.
The ring in one configuration can be coupled to a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) which produces an output signal directly proportional to the rate of rotation.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein: