title: Correlation technique for the compensation of diffraction widening of optical reference signals.
abstract: Two-grating measurement systems are routinely employed for high-resolution measurements of angular and linear displacement. Usually, these systems incorporate zero reference codes (ZRCs) to obtain a zero reference signal (ZRS), which is used as a stage-homing signal. This signal provides absolute information of the position to the otherwise relative information provided by the two-grating incremental subsystems. A zero reference signal is commonly obtained illuminating the superposition of two identical pseudorandom codes and registering the transmitted light by means of a photodiode. To increase the resolution of the system, a reduction of the grating period and the ZRC widths is required. Due to this reduction, the diffractive effects produce a widening of the ZRS and, in turn, a loss of the measuring accuracy. In this work, we propose a method to narrow the distorted signal obtained with a Lau-based encoder, reinstating the accuracy of the ZRS. The method consists of the inclusion of a correlation mask on the detector. A theoretical model to design the mask has been developed, and experimental results have been obtained that validate the proposed technique.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Teoría de la Señal y Comunicaciones, Escuela Politécnica Superior, Universidad de Alcalá, Campus Universitario, 28805 Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain. jose.saez@uah.es
authors.forename: José
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sáez-Landete
authors.forename: José
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Alonso
authors.forename: Luis Miguel
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Sanchez-Brea
authors.forename: Tomás
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Morlanes
authors.forename: Eusebio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bernabeu