Patent ID: 7377435

Claim:
An optical encoder, comprising: a light source, which emits light; a code strip, which has reflective regions and non-reflective regions which are staggered, wherein the reflective regions reflect the light from the light source to produce a reflective light beam; a first lens set, which is disposed on the same side of the code strip as the light source, and which converges the light beam and transmits the converged light beam; and a light sensing element, which has a plurality of light sensing cells arranged in an N 1 ×N 2 matrix with N 1 and N 2 being integers greater than 1, and which receives the light beam converged by the first lens set and converts the received light beam into an electrical signal, thereby obtaining a binary identification code, wherein the light sensing element is opposite to the code strip and installed on another side of the first lens set, the light-sensing cells detecting N 1 channels of the code strip and synchronously receiving the light beam converged from different portions of the reflective regions by the first lens set N 2 times.