Patent ID: 8637804
Filing Date: 2014-01-28
Classification: G01B,G01D

Abstract:
1. A rotary position encoder for determining an angular position of a shaft, comprising: an optical disk having at least a transparent polycarbonate layer and a reflective layer on the transparent polycarbonate layer, affixed to the shaft, the optical disk having a first circumferential track encoded therein having binary data and a second circumferential track encoded therein having binary data displaced radially from the first circumferential track; an optics assembly for interrogating the first and second circumferential tracks of the optical disk and outputting an output signal indicative of data received from the interrogation of the first and second circumferential tracks of the optical disk; and a processing unit for receiving the output signal from the optics assembly, correlating the output signal with a predetermined characteristic of the shaft, and outputting a signal indicative of the angular position of the shaft based on the correlation.