Tma Technologies, Inc.

Dana Corporation

Daniel R Cheever

Tod F Schiff

Lee E Cannon

Donald R Bjork

John C Stover

Marvin L Bernt

Kelly H Kirchner

James A Bender

Daniel J Wilson

Paul D Chausse

Vincent C Skurdal

A system for measuring relative angular position about a roll-axis, a yaw-axis, and a pitch-axis includes a source assembly and a receiver assembly. A source assembly emits a rotationally polarized carrier wave laser beam. A laser beam from a laser diode is directed through a linear polarizer and then through the center of a rotating half-wave plate. The plate is secured to a hollow shaft of an electric motor. The beam travels through the plate and through the hollow shaft. A reference signal corresponding to the rotational modulation imposed by the rotating plate is obtained using a flag which is secured to the shaft and positioned to actuate an optical encoder. After leaving the source assembly and reaching the receiver assembly, the beam travels through another linear polarizer, a neutral density filter, and an aplanatic achromatic lens to a two-dimensional position sensing detector. In response to the beam, the position sensing detector produces output signals that correspond to the position of the beam. The signals are routed to a microprocessor by way of additional electronics. The microprocessor also receives the reference signal from the optical encoder adjacent the rotating motor shaft. The microprocessor then uses the various signals to accurately determine the roll, yaw, and pitch of the receiver assembly relative to the source assembly.

System and method for measuring angular position

An optical measurement device produces quality light scatter measurements using Bidirectional Reflective Distribution Function (BRDF) techniques to analyze data generated from an accurate, portable, relatively inexpensive scatterometer. The scatterometer is provided with interchangeable scanning heads, each scanning head being equipped with ROM data storage containing certain configuration information about the scanning head. The use of the interchangeable scanning heads allows the present invention to make measurements of light scatter for a wide variety of applications and samples under a variety of environmental conditions where scatter measurement has previously not been feasible.

Modular scatterometer with interchangeable scanning heads

An encoder interface circuit is responsive to command direction signals and pulsed command incremental rotation signals and to actual direction signals and pulsed actual incremental rotation signals to generate an error signal to a motor driver for controlling the movement of a servo motor. A position encoder is mechanically coupled to the servo motor for generating the actual direction and incremental rotation signals. The interface circuit generates a reference pulse train and an error pulse train, both at a relatively high frequency. The error pulse train is phase modulated by adding or subtracting the pulsed actual and command incremental signals according to the state of the corresponding direction signals. The reference and phase modulated error pulse trains are then compared to generate the error signal to the motor driver.

Position encoder interface for a servo control system

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Bozeman, MT, United States of America

Daniel R Cheever