Deutsche Forschungsanstalt Fur Luft-und Raumfahrt E.v.

Rainer Thiessen

Volker Tank

Peter Haschberger

Helmut Dietl

Erwin Lindermeir

Oliver Mayer

A method for measuring and determining a rotation angle of a rotating object in which a clock track corresponding to a desired angular resolution is applied on a magnetic, optical or optomagnetic storage medium. The storage medium is then rotated synchronously with the rotating object, and during the operation a pulse sequence corresponding to the clock track is read from said storage medium. The read pulse sequence is then supplied for further processing to following electronics in which the actual rotation angle is firstly stored in a FIFO memory and secondly directly available for further uses. Furthermore, the invention provides an apparatus for measuring and determining a path difference in Michelson interferometers in which path difference are generated via a rotary movement, for example of a rotating retroreflector. A memory medium is rigidly connected to the rotation shaft of the rotating retroreflector generating a path difference and on said medium a clock track corresponding to the sampling theorem is applied and during the rotation movement is read by a read head fixedly associated with the storage medium. During operation said pulse sequence is read by the read head and supplied to following signal electronics in which from the pulse sequence the desired clock pulse and thus the path information is then obtained.

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Munchen, Germany

Rainer Thiessen