Patent ID: 7312436

Claim:
An optical position measuring system for generating position-dependent scanning signals, comprising: a measuring graduation; a scanning unit that is movable in relation to said measuring graduation in a measuring direction, said scanning unit comprises: a light source that generates light towards said measuring graduation so that scanning signals result from an interaction of said light with said measuring graduation; and an opto-electronic detector arrangement comprising a plurality of detector element units, whose geometric shape and/or arrangement has been selected in such a way that through said plurality of detector element units at least a partial filtering of undesired harmonics out of said scanning signals results and wherein each of said plurality of detector element units has a longitudinal axis, which is arranged in a detection plane tilted at a tilt angle α≠90° in relation to said measuring direction and said plurality of detector element units are arranged along said measuring direction with a second periodicity, and each of said plurality of detector element units comprises one or several individual detector elements; and wherein said opto-electronic detector arrangement has an axis of symmetry, which is oriented parallel with respect to said measuring direction, and wherein a first and a second one of said plurality of detector element units are arranged in a V-shape with respect to each other and mirror-symmetrically in relation to said axis of symmetry; and wherein said measuring graduation comprises an arrangement of graduation areas with different optical properties, which is periodic in said measuring direction and has a periodicity and which has been selected in such a way that through said arrangement of graduation areas at least a partial filtering of undesired harmonics out of said scanning signals results.