Patent ID: 6894487

Claim:
An angle of rotation sensor with a rotary shaft, a magnet coupled to the rotary shaft, and a magnetically sensitive sensor element, which generates a sinusoidal output signal and a cosinusoidal output signal as a function of the relative angle of rotation between the magnet and the sensor element, and with an evaluation unit, which generates from the output signals a signal corresponding to the angle of rotation, characterized in that the shaft is also moved linearly parallel to its axis along a guide track when the shaft rotates about its axis, so that the distance between magnet and sensor changes corresponding to a pitch of the guide track, and the evaluation unit determines from the generated sinusoidal and cosinusoidal output signals of the sensor element a signal, from which the distance between the sensor element and the magnet, and thus a number of full rotations of the shaft, can be determined, wherein from the generated sinusoidal and cosinusoidal output signals a fine signal within a full rotation is determined and this fine signal is added to the full rotation value multiplied by 360°.