Patent ID: 6963409

Claim:
An optical position measuring system, comprising: a periodic grating structure; and a scanning unit comprising: a light source that directs light towards said periodic grating structure; an optical lens device that receives light from said periodic grating structure and creates an image of said periodic grating structure in an image plane, said optical lens device comprises a periodic lens array with a grating period, A G (r) or the mutual distance between adjoining lenses of said lens array defined by the equation: A G ⁡ ( r ) =  β ⁡ ( r )  * [ t ⁡ ( r ) * [ k + i + n ] + ψ ] (  β ⁡ ( r )  + 1 ) wherein A G (r) is the grating period of the lens array, t(r) the period of the periodic grating structure, |β(r)| the absolute amount of the image magnification factor β of the lens array Ψ a presettable defined phase shift r the radius of the grating arrangement, wherein in the case of a linear grating r=∞ and Ag, t, and |β| are constants, i, k, n ε N, are natural numbers, including zero.