Abstract
The main scale of linear encoder greatly effects on the precision of displacement measurement. Especially when needing the long range measurement the length of main scale should be increased accordingly. In this paper we propose a linear encoder that uses laser interference pattern as main scale for long range measurement. The linear encoder is similar to Michelson interferometer excepting that the reference mirror is tilted so as to obtain interference fringe pattern and a grating panel is attached on a quadratic photo diodes. Four kinds of grating having phase difference of 0. $\pi$/4, $\pi$/2, 3$\pi$/4 are arranged on the panel. The experimental results show that signals of quadratic photo diode A, B, {{{{ {-}atop {A } }}}} and {{{{ {- } atop {B } }}}} are cosine wavelike and successive signals have phase difference of $\pi$/4 each other. So the proposed method can achieve improved measurement resolution.