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:
Apr. 03, 2018
Filed:
Aug. 26, 2015
Novanta Corporation, Bedford, MA (US);
Andrew M. Goldman, Stow, MA (US);
Marc A. Bernard, Superior, CO (US);
William G. Thorburn, Danvers, MA (US);
Novanta Corporation, Bedford, MA (US);
Abstract
An optical position encoder includes a scale having multiple tracks separated in a direction perpendicular to travel, the tracks including an incremental track and an absolute track, the scale interacting with an incident first light beam to generate a second light beam having components carrying respective optical patterns produced by the incremental track and absolute track respectively. The encoder further includes a set of optical detectors including at least first and second detector arrays of differing properties to detect the respective optical patterns produced by the incremental track and absolute track respectively, each of the first and second detector arrays spanning multiple tracks of the scale and configured to respond to a respective detector-specific component of the second light beam more strongly than to another component of the second beam specific to another of the detector arrays.