OPTICAL ENCODER WITH VARIABLE-PHASE SINUSOIDAL OUTPUT

MODULE A PHOTODIODES ET METHODE POUR LE FABRIQUER

English Abstract

The general purpose of the invention is to produce a sinusoidal output
wave whose phase shift will be proportional to the angular shaft position. A
single rotation of the shaft produces a large number of cycles of the sine
wave.
The amplitude and frequency of the sine-wave output are both constant, and the
sine-wave output continues at the same amplitude and frequency even when the
shaft angle is stationary. A single source of light is used to illuminate a
large
number of closely spaced detectors, and the light intensity is constant in
time.
The light passes through an optical disk with a pattern of alternately light
and
dark radial lines on it, arranged in a circumferential array, which modulate
the
transmitted light to produce a sinusoidal pattern of illumination of an array
of
detectors. The array of closely-spaced detectors is scanned serially at high
speed to produce a continuous stream of analog output data which emulates the
output produced by a resolver or LPDT (see Ref. 1).
A distinguishing characteristic of the device is that it is not necessary, or
even desirable, to digitally sample the output signal as is done in Ref. 2.
Instead,
the output signal is processed in its' original analog form by an ASIC
(Application Specific Integrated Circuit) which is generic in nature, and not
specifically designed for optical encoders. A second distinguishing
characteristic
of the device is that a single optical source of illumination can be used at
constant intensity, which greatly simplifies the optical characteristics of
the
device, while other devices of this type typically require pulsing and/or time
phase-shifting of multiple optical sources relative to each other (see Ref.
3).

Claims

CLAIMS
1. An optical encoder for sensing modulated light transmitted through a rotating disk,
the disk containing at least one circumferential track in which the light is modulated so as
to produce a sinusoidally varying light transmission coefficient as the disk is rotated, with
several cycles of the sinusoidal wave per each revolution of the disk. The disk may or may
not contain additional tracks encoded with light and dark sections such as would be
appropriate for either an incremental or absolute position encoder.
2. An optical encoder for sensing modulated light transmitted through a moving
rectangular plate, the plate containing at least one track in which the light is modulated so
as to produce a sinusoidally varying light transmission coefficient as the plate is moved
linearly, with several cycles of the sinusoidal wave per length of the plate. The plate may
or may not contain additional tracks encoded with light and dark sections such as would
be appropriate for either an incremental or absolute position encoder.
3. A light transmission device capable of providing an equal amount of illumination
upon an area of the disk or plate corresponding to a full cycle of the sinusoidal pattern
imposed on the disk or plate, wherein the light intensity of the source is constant in time.
4. A light detection device consisting of a single monolithic array of several light
sensors closely spaced together such that the physical length of the array is equal to the
physical period of the sinusoidal pattern imposed on the optical disk or plate.
5 . A serial scanning procedure wherein each of the individual light sensors in the
array is monitored to measure the intensity of the light illuminating it. The scanning
procedure to be such that all of the individual sensors in the array are scanned sequentially
at high speed, with the scanning to be restarted automatically at the start of the array, so

as to produce a continuous stream of electrical signals proportional to light intensity at
different locations in the array.
6. A reference signal of the same frequency as the frequency with which the light
sensor array is being scanned, being synchronized with the time at which the first sensor in
the array is being measured.
7. An electronic analog signal processing system which measures the phase shift
between the above two signals and yields an output signal proportional to the phase shift,
the signals to be processed by this system being an exact emulation of the typical output
produced by a Linear Phase Differential Transducer.
REFERENCES
1. Linear differential transformer with amplitude and variable phase output.
US patent: 4,437,019 Inventor: Jacob Chass
2. Signal processing apparatus for pulse encoder with A/D conversion and clocking.
US patent: 4,972,080 Inventor: Mitsuyuki Taniguchi
3. Angular position detector
US patent: 4,710,889 Inventor: Thomas Wason

Description

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OPtical Encoder with Variable-Phase Sinusoidal OUtPut
BACKGROUND OF TIIE INVENTION
Field of the Invention
An optical system senses light tr~n.~mitted through a repetitive pattern of light and
dark spots on a circular disk or a rect~n~ r plate, and converts it into a continuous
stream of sinusoidal analog data. The analog output signal is phase-shifted relative to a
trigger signal in such a way as to give precise h~ol.nalion on the angular orientation or
linear position of the disk. The output is compatible with that produced by a resolver or an
LPDT (Linear Phase Di~e~enlial Transducer).
Description of the Prior Art
Incremental and absolute encoders are used to determine the position or velocityof a rotating shaft or linearly moving core. In their simplest form such encoders typically
produce high-frequency analog outputs in the form of two square waves which are 90
degrees phase-shifted relative to each other. The square waves are generated by dark and
light areas on an optical disk in the case of a shaft encoder. The angular resolution of the
device is limited by the number of dark lines engraved on the disk. In order to achieve
high-precision measurement of position it has therefore been necessary to encode the disks
in an optically precise way with a large number of lines. Other devices have attempted to
improve resolution beyond that implied by the number of lines encoded on the disk, by
developing interpolation schemes to infer information for those positions in between
sllccessive dark lines. One method has been to use multiple sources of pulsed light, and
multiple detectors, where each source is phase-shifted in time relative to its' neighbor. This
requires precise alignment of multiple devices and does not produce a smooth
interpolation signal between s~lccessive dark lines. Another approach has been to modulate

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the intensity of the dark lines in a smooth way so as to produce a sinusoidal output instead
of a square wave. This has led to the "sine-cosine" encoder, with two output signals
whose relative amplitude can be used to infer angular position very accurately. This
approach, however, requires very precise positioning of two detectors relative to each
other, and requires high-speed digital data-acquisition techniques. Additionally, it is
susceptible to transient electrical noise since the signals are sampled in~t~nt~neously to
determine position, rather than being sampled for a full sine-wave cycle.
SUMMARY OF THE lNVENTION
The general purpose of the invention is to produce a sinusoidal output wave whose
phase shift will be proportional to the angular shaft position. A single rotation of the shaft
produces a large number of cycles of the sine wave. The amplitude and frequency of the
sine-wave output are both constant, and the sine-wave output continues at the same
amplitude and frequency even when the shaft angle is stationary. A single source of light is
used to illllmin~te a large number of closely spaced detectors, and the light intensity is
constant in time. The light passes through an optical disk with a pattern of alternately light
and dark radial lines on it, arranged in a circu...rere.l~ial array, which modulate the
tran~mitted light to produce a sinusoidal pattern of ill~lmin~tion of an array of detectors.
The array of closely-spaced detectors is scanned serially at high speed to produce a
continuous stream of analog output data which çm~ tes the output produced by a
resolver or LPDT (see Ref. 1).
A distin~-iching characteristic ofthe device is that it is not necessary, or even
desirable, to digitally sample the output signal as is done in Ref. 2. Tn~te~d~ the output
signal is processed in its' original analog form by an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated
Circuit) which is generic in nature, and not specifically designed for optical encoders. A
second di~tin~ hinf~ characteristic ofthe device is that a single optical source of
illllmin~tion can be used at constant intensity, which greatly simplifies the optical

2196617
characteristics of the device, while other devices of this type typically require pulsing
and/or time phase-shifting of multiple optical sources relative to each other (see Re~ 3).
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF TIIE DRAWINGS
Figure lA shows an encoder disk with a pattern of dark lines drawn on it, so as to
modulate the tr~n~mi~sion of light through the disk. The pattern shown from 1 to 3 repeats
itself around the entire disk.
Figure lB shows an encoder rect~n~ r array with a pattern of dark lines drawn
on it, so as to modulate the tr~nimi~ion of light through the disk. The pattern shown from
1 to 3 repeats itself linearly for a number of cycles.
Figure 2 shows a side view of the light emitter 4, code disk 5, and 64 closely
spaced light detectors 6-69 leading to an analog output signal at 70.
Figure 3A shows a typical output signal at location 70, plotted as a function oftime, for a case where the encoder is at a fixed position T1. Also shown are the times 76-
140 when specific optical detectors 6-69 are sampled to determine light intensity.
Figure 3B shows a typical output signal at location 70, plotted as a function oftime, for a case where the encoder is at a di~elenl fixed position T2. Also shown are the
times 146-210 when the same set of optical detectors 6-69 are sampled to determine light
intensity.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF TIIE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
In a prerelled embodiment ofthis invention, multiple tr~n.smi~sive sections 1-3 of
an optical disk are patterned non-unirollllly such that, if the code disk were rotated and a
stationary detector were used to detect the light transmitted through the disk, then the

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output signal as a function of time would be as in Fig 3A or 3B, apart from an arbitrary
phase shift in time. In a typical embodiment the disk diameter would be 3.2 inches, having
around its' circumference 32 sections of the type shown from 1 to 3 in Fig. 1, such that a
single full rotation of the disk would generate 32 full cycles of the sine wave shown in Fig
3. In a typical embodiment the distance from 1 to 3 in Fig. 1 would be 8 mm. Similarly the
distance between the photodetector at 6 and the photodetector at 69 would also be 8 mm.,
there being 64 separate photodetectors within this range, each separated from each other
by 125 microns, such that a serial scan of the light intensity at locations 6 to 69 in Fig. 2
would generate a sine wave of the type shown in Fig. 3A from locations 76 - 140 even if
the code disk were stationary. In this embodiment the detectors are scanned serially in a
cyclical fashion, and the output signal at location 70 at any instant of time represents the
light intensity at a specific site between 6 and 69. In a typical embodiment the sc~nnin~
rate for sampling the detectors serially would be 512 kHz such that each individual
detector is sampled 8000 times per second. For a stationary code wheel the output signal
is then of the form shown in Fig. 3 with a typical frequency of 8 kHz. The nature of the
device is such that a change in angular position of the code wheel will induce a phase shift
in the output signal from that shown in Fig. 3A to that shown in Fig. 3B, without ch~ngin~
the amplitude of the signal, where amplitude is defined as the rms. value of the signal. The
phase shift is such that at one angular position of the optical disk the signal sampled at
location 6 will be represented by point 76 in Fig. 3A, while at another angular position the
signal at location 6 will be given by point 146 in Fig. 3B.
A further feature of the device is the presence of a reference signal of frequency 8
kHz which is syncl~oni~ed with the time at which a specific detector such as detector 6 in
Fig. 2 is sampled. One thus has two signals of the same frequency with a phase shi~
between them which is propol ~ional to the angular position of the disk. This pair of signals
is an exact emulation of the typical output produced by an LPDT, and is processed
electronically in a manner identical to that of an LPDT using a suitable ASIC. The
characteristic features of the ASIC used in this invention are that the two signals are
colllpaled electronically to determine the phase difference between them without at any

2 1 q66 1 7
time attempting to digitize the two signals. Only after the phase shift has been determined
is it possible or necessary to digitize the phase shift i~ ion for purposes of electronic
communication with other devices. This relieves the ASIC of the onerous task of
attempting to digitize a signal at very high speed and greatly simplifies the electronics of
the device. It also provides for a great deal of automatic noise rejection, since the entire
waveform shown in Fig. 3 is being used to determine the phase shift, the waveform lasting
for a period of about 125 microseconds, while any attempt to digitize the signal to obtain
phase shift i-~-lllalion would have to sample the signal much faster with a typical time
period of 2 microseconds in the case of a 512 kHz. sc~nning rate.
The device described here can be reasonably considered to be an "infinite
resolution" encoder in the sense that the precision is limited only by the quality of the
optical patterns engraved on the disk and by the electronic precision of the circuit which
determines the phase shift, and is not limited by the number of optical detectors used to
measure the light intensity.
It will be appreciated that although only a few exemplary embodiments of a
variable-phase sinusoidal output optical encoder have been described and illustrated,
numerous variations and modifications will be apparelll to those skilled in the art. For
example, the optical pattern can be either circular or rect~n~ r, and the detected motion
can be either circular or linear. Similarly, the physical dimensions of the photodetector
array and the sc~nning frequency and number of detectors can be altered without in any
way affecting the nature of the invention. Therefore it should be understood that, within
the scope of the appended claims, the invention may be practised otherwise than as
specifically described.

Representative Drawing