Patent ID: 7535216

Claim:
An incremental displacement transducer for determining a displacement of a first object relative to a second object, comprising: a scanning unit linked with the first object for scanning a division track linked with the second object, the division track comprising first areas and second areas arranged in alternating manner with a period length, in which the first areas have a first physical property and the second areas a second physical property differing from the first physical property, wherein the scanning unit has a plurality of sensors for scanning the first areas and second areas on a basis of at least one of the first and second physical property and for providing corresponding measuring signals, and wherein the scanning unit comprises at least three sensors spaced from one another over at least one period length; and an evaluating unit linked with the scanning unit for determining the displacement on a basis of the measuring signals of the sensors, wherein a first switching signal and a second switching signal are generated from the measuring signals of the sensors for the determination of the displacement, wherein the first switching signal assumes a first value if a particular one of the sensors belonging to a first subgroup of sensors emits a maximum measuring signal and otherwise assumes a second value, wherein the second switching signal assumes a first value if a particular one of the sensors belonging to a second subgroup of the sensors emits a maximum measuring signal and otherwise assumes a second value, and wherein at least one of the sensors belongs to both the first subgroup and the second subgroup.