The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 20, 1994
Filed:
Jul. 12, 1993
Sarkis Barkhoudarian, Canoga Park, CA (US);
Rockwell International Corporation, Seal Beach, CA (US);
Abstract
Optical measuring devises for measuring the angular position and rotation rate of a shaft 14. The shaft 14 has a variable pitch diffraction grating 22 etched on one end 16. The pitch gradient of the diffraction grating 22 varies as a function of circumferential position on the shaft 14. A monochromatic light source such as laser source 50 provides incident beam 20 which strikes grating 22. A diffracted light beam 26 from a the grating 22 strikes a position detector 61 at varying positions depending on the angular position of the shaft 14. By employing a position detector 61 which is sensitive to the position of the diffracted beam 26, a continuous position indicator of the shaft angular rotation is possible. A microprocessor calculates shaft position and rotation rates from the data supplied from the beam position detectors.