Patent ID: 7701593

Claim:
An optical position measuring arrangement for determining the relative position of a fiber-optical scanning head and of a measuring graduation, which can be moved with respect to said fiber-optical scanning head in at least one measuring direction, the optical position measuring arrangement comprising: a source of illumination that generates one or several bundles of illuminating beams; a measuring graduation that is illuminated by said source of illumination so as to generate a periodic fringe pattern of a defined fringe pattern period; a fiber-optical scanning head, wherein said measuring graduation moves relative to said fiber-optical scanning head and wherein said fiber-optical scanning head scans said periodic fringe pattern; a scanning plate is arranged in said fiber-optical scanning head in front of an end of a fiber-optical waveguide positioned at a side of said measuring graduation, wherein said scanning plate is matched to said fringe pattern period and scans said periodic fringe pattern when said fiber-optical scanning head scans said periodic fringe pattern; and wherein fringe patterns, which are phase-shifted in relation to each other, are generated within a fringe pattern period in bundles of partial signal beams in said one or several bundles of illuminating beams via a wavelength-dependent local separation, and said bundles of partial signal beams are employed for conversion into position-dependent phase-shifted scanning signals.