Patent ID: 7872762

Claim:
An optical position measuring arrangement for the generation of n>1 phase-shifted incremental signals characterizing relative positions of two objects which are movable with respect to each other along a measuring direction, the optical position measuring arrangement comprising: a light source that emits bundles of beams; a measurement grating; a plurality of optional gratings; and a scanning unit comprising: a scanning grating arranged in a scanning plane, wherein said scanning grating comprises a plurality of blocks arranged periodically along said measuring direction with a scanning grating periodicity TP AG equaling a fringe pattern periodicity TP S , and each block comprises n grating sections (n=1, 2, 3, . . . ) of a width b x =TP AG /n, exclusively arranged along said measuring direction, and each of said n grating sections comprises a periodic grating structure, which causes a deflection of said bundles of beams propagated through each of said n grating sections in several spatial directions, in which resulting spatial directions of said n grating sections in a block differ; and a plurality of detector elements arranged downstream of said scanning grating, wherein said detector elements are arranged in said spatial directions in said detector plane, and wherein said detector plane is located in an area in which said bundles of beams coming from said scanning grating are completely spatially separated; and wherein said fringe pattern having a periodicity TP S is formed in said scanning plane by an interaction of said bundles of beams emitted by said light source with said measurement grating and said further optional gratings.