Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Yoichi Kubota

Satoshi Ishii

Tetsuharu Nishimura

Masaaki Tsukiji

Koh Ishizuka

Yukio Sato

Yasushi Murayama

Hiroyuki Miyake

Osamu Hoshino

Ken Miyagi

Kazuyoshi Chiku

Hiroshi Itoh

Hideaki Mitsutake

Takashi Uchida

Tomohiro Aoki

Ko Ishizuka

Hiroaki Takeishi

Kunihiko Matsuzawa

Masahiro Morisada

Yoshihiko Hirose

Naoki Kawamata

Kazunori Kanekura

Katsuhiro Fujii

A positioning device and method includes a motor having a rotation axis, a driver for driving the motor on the basis of control information, a detector for detecting position information of the rotation axis of the motor, and a digital signal processor for performing an operation on the control information in accordance with the position information detected by the detector.

Device and method comprising a motor and/or a digital signal processor,

An interferometer for measuring the displacement of a diffraction grating includes a multi-mode semiconductor laser for generating a laser beam; a device for supplying a predetermined current to the laser so that at least five vertical modes occur in an oscillation spectrum of the laser beam generated by the laser at an intensity ratio of at least 0.05; and an optical system for splitting the laser beam generated by the laser into first and second beams. The optical system also directs the first and second beams to the diffraction grating and effects interference between a first diffracted light beam generated by the diffraction of the first beam at the diffraction grating and a second diffracted light beam generated by the diffraction of the second beam at the diffraction grating to produce an interference light beam. Also provided is a photoelectric convertor for converting the interference light beam into an electrical signal.

Encoder utilizing interference using multi-mode semiconductor laser

A displacement measuring apparatus comprises a scale relatively displaced to an irradiating beam, a reading head to read the scale by the irradiating beam, and control device to control the apparatus for avoiding substantially the leakage of the irradiating beam out of the apparatus in response to the positional error of the scale and the irradiating beam.

Displacement measuring apparatus

An encoder in which a light beam emitted from a semiconductor laser or the like is applied to a diffraction grating from a predetermined direction which is not contained in a reference plane defined by direction of relative movement of the diffraction grating and a direction normal to the diffraction grating. A diffracted light created from the diffraction grating by the application of the light beam by the light applying means is reflected by re-entering means and the reflected light is caused to re-enter the diffraction grating at substantially the same position as the position at which the diffracted light is created. At this time, an interference light formed by the other re-diffracted lights than O-order light created from the diffraction grating substantially in the same direction as the predetermined direction by the re-entrance of the diffracted light by the re-entering means is detected, and the information of the relative displacement of the light beam and the diffraction grating is obtained from a variation in the intensity of the interference light.

Encoder incorporating a displaceable diffraction grating

A method for detecting a state of rotation of a rotary scale having a diffraction grating therein in which a radiation beam is directed to a first place on the diffraction grating to generate first and second diffracted beams. The first and second diffracted beams are re-diffracted at the first place to form a first re-diffracted beam and a second re-diffracted beam. The first and second re-diffracted beams are directed to a second place on the diffraction grating substantially opposite the first place with respect to the center of rotation of the rotary scale. The first and second re-diffracted beams are diffracted at the second place to interfere with each other so that an interference beam is formed. The interference beam is converted into a signal to detect the state of rotation of the rotary scale.

Diffracted beam encoder

In an optical type encoder for projecting a light beam onto an optical type scale having a diffraction grating formed thereon, forming an interferenced light by the use of a diffracted light from the scale, and photoelectrically converting the interferenced light to thereby measure the displacement of the scale, first and second light beams are caused to enter substantially the same position on the scale from different first and second directions, first and second diffracted light beams emerging from the scale by the first and second light beams being diffracted by the scale are directed to the aforementioned position by a reflecting device, the diffracted light beams emerging in the first and second directions by the first and second diffracted light beams being diffracted by the scale are superposed one upon the other to thereby form an interferenced light, and light components created by the first and second light beams being regularly reflected at the aforementioned position are not included in the interferenced light.

Optical type encoder

An encoder having a long length measuring stroke with a simple construction is provided. The encoder comprises a scale formed with a periodic lattice pattern, first and second reading heads arranged along a moving direction of the scale for reading the scale, and an adder for adding output signals from the first and second reading heads. The encoder further has adjusting mechanism for adjusting such that the phase difference between the output signals from the first and second reading head becomes zero. A continuous periodic signal can be always accurately obtained independently of the position of the scale.

Encoder having long length measuring stroke

A displacement measuring apparatus has an illuminating device for illuminating a diffraction grating with a radiation beam, an optical system for directing first and second diffracted beams created by the diffraction grating with to the diffraction grating, the optical system being provided so that the first and second diffracted beams have a common optical path and travel in opposite directions along the optical path. In addition, a device receives an interference beam formed by first and second re-diffracted beams created by the first and second diffracted beams being diffracted by the diffraction grating, and outputs a signal conforming to the displacement of the diffraction grating relative to the radiation beam.

A rotary encoder for detecting a rotation status of a rotary scale having a diffraction grating formed along a rotational direction comprises a directing device for directing a radiation beam to a first position on the rotary scale and directing a plurality of diffracted beams generated at the first position to a second position different from the first position. The direction device is constructed such that the plurality of diffracted beams gave a common light path between the first position and the second position. The encoder also includes a forming device for forming an interference beam from a plurality of rediffracted beams generated at the second position, and a convertor for converting the interference beam to a signal to produce the signal representing the rotation status.

Rotary encoder using multiple diffracted beams having co-incident paths

An encoder for measuring the displacement of a movable diffraction grating has means for applying a radiation beam to the diffraction grating, a reflecting optical system for causing first and second reflected and diffracted beams created on the diffraction grating by the application of the radiation beam to be reflected and diffracted at least twice by the diffraction grating, and means for receiving an interference beam formed by the first and second reflected and diffracted beams reflected and diffracted at least twice and converting it into a signal conforming to the displacement of the diffraction grating.

Encoder with diffraction grating and multiply diffracted light

An image forming apparatus for forming superimposed images includes a plurality of image forming devices each for forming a different image and a registration mark, corresponding to the position of the associated image, on an image transferring medium. The registration mark is formed on a transparent part of the medium and is illuminated from below. A detector above the medium detects the position of the shadow of the registration mark for each image and the result of detection is used to adjust the position of at least one image forming device to produce proper registration between the images formed by the respective image forming devices.

Apparatus for forming superimposed images

There is provided a multiimage forming apparatus for forming image data onto photo sensitive drums by an electrophotographic system. This apparatus comprises: an image forming circuit to form different images onto the photo sensitive drums; a transfer device to transfer the images on the drums onto the same transfer paper; a conveying belt to convey the transfer paper; a control circuit to control the image forming circuit so as to form registration marks to match the positions of the images onto the drums; CCD detectors to detect the recording positions of the marks; and a correcting circuit to correct at least two of the positional direction in the conveying direction of the belt, the positional deviation in the direction perpendicular to the belt conveying direction, the magnification of the image, and the inclination of the image on the basis of the detection outputs of the detectors. With this apparatus, the positional deviations of the images which occur during the image formation can be accurately corrected, so that the images can be accurately formed on the transfer paper by reading and matching the position matching registration marks.

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Kawasaki, Japan

Yoichi Kubota