Optical position measuring device

Abstract

In an optical position measuring device for detecting the relative position of a first measuring standard and a second measuring standard, movable relative to each other along at least one measuring direction, at a splitting grating, a beam bundle emitted by a light source is split up into at least two partial beam bundles. When passing through scanning beam paths, the partial beam bundles undergo different polarization-optical effects. After the differently polarized partial beam bundles are recombined at a combination grating, a plurality of phase-displaced, displacement-dependent scanning signals is able to be generated from the resulting beam bundle. No polarization-optical components are arranged in the scanning beam paths of the partial beam bundles between the splitting and recombination. To generate the different polarization-optical effects on the partial beam bundles, a conically incident illumination beam bundle impinges upon the splitting grating, the incident illumination beam bundle extending in a plane perpendicular to the measuring direction at an angle other than 0°, the plane of incidence being defined by the grating normal to the splitting grating and the direction of incidence of the illumination beam bundle. The scanning beam paths of the partial beam bundles are arranged in mirror symmetry with respect to the plane of incidence between the splitting and recombination.