Various embodiments of the inventions described herein relate to the field of motion encoders, and interpolation circuitry, components, devices, systems and methods associated therewith.
Interpolation circuitry is commonly employed in incremental and absolute digital motion encoding systems, where the interpolation circuitry is configured to generate digital pulses having higher frequencies than base sinusoidal analog signals input to the circuitry. As the interpolation factor of the circuitry increases, the accuracy of the interpolation circuitry becomes ever more critical since the output provided by such circuitry ultimately determines the accuracy of the encoding system. Unfortunately, due to the architecture of most interpolation circuitry—which typically relies on a large number of comparators—the outputs provided by interpolation circuitry tend to be noisy and contain undesired noise spikes arising from excessive switching in the comparators. As a result, the comparators employed in interpolation circuitry for motion encoders typically employ a significant amount of hysteresis to provide immunity from noise spikes. Such hysteresis itself becomes a source of inaccuracy for the interpolation circuitry, however, especially at high interpolation factors.
Referring to
Referring now to
In an encoder of the type shown in
One technique employed in the prior art to change or adjust the spatial resolution provided by device 10 is to employ one or more reticles disposed between light emitter 20 and light detector 40.
Continuing to refer to
One commonly-employed scheme in the prior art for providing increased resolution interpolated output signals from an optical encoder system is to systematically reducing the amplitude of the input signals. These reduced amplitude signals are then compared to reference signals through XOR operations to generate interpolated bits. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,355,927 to Snyder entitled “Interpolation Methods and Circuits for Increasing the Resolution of Optical Encoders” One disadvantage of such an approach is that the number of comparators must be doubled for every additional bit that is to be interpolated. For example, at 2× interpolation (21), a minimum of 8 comparators are required, and the number of comparators required beyond that doubles for every 2n interpolation that is desired. Thus, in the case where 32× (25) interpolation is required, 128 comparators will be required. The use of so many comparators increases design and IC costs.
What is needed is interpolation circuitry for motion encoding systems where the spatial resolution of an encoder may be adjusted or manipulated without the use of additional optical components, reticle strips or reticles, and where spatial resolution adjustments may be effected quickly and accurately without unduly increasing cost. What is also needed is interpolation circuitry for motion encoding systems having improved immunity from noise, that is capable of providing high interpolation factors, that can provide highly accurate interpolation output signals, and that does not unduly increase circuit complexity, design and/or cost.
In some embodiments, there is provided a method of linearizing and subsequently digitally interpolating a sinusoidal analog signal generated by a motion encoder, the sinusoidal analog signal having a first frequency, comprising providing the analog signal to each of a plurality of comparators as inputs thereto, providing positive and negative reference voltages to opposite ends of a resistor string comprising a plurality of scaling and linearizing resistors arranged in series, each succeeding resistor in the resistor string being scaled differently in accordance with one of a sine, cosine, arc sine or arc cosine function, the resulting scaled and linearized voltages provided by the resistor string being provided as scaled and linearized input signals to corresponding ones of a plurality of comparators, each of the comparators receiving as inputs thereto the analog signal and a corresponding scaled and linearized input signal, and providing as outputs therefrom comparator outputs, and providing the comparator outputs to an analog-to-digital converter (“ADC”) and a processor to yield at least one digitally interpolated output signal therefrom, wherein each of the at least one interpolated output signals has a corresponding frequency that is an integer multiple of the first frequency, and outputs provided by the ADC to the processor are substantially linearized.
In other embodiments, there is provided a method of linearizing and subsequently digitally interpolating first and second sinusoidal analog signals generated by a motion encoder and 90 degrees out of phase respecting one another, the first and second sinusoidal analog signals having substantially the same first frequency, comprising providing the first analog signal to a plurality of first comparators as inputs thereto, providing the second analog signal to a first end of a first resistor string comprising a plurality of first scaling and linearizing resistors arranged in series, each succeeding resistor in the first resistor string being scaled differently in accordance with one of a tangent and arc tangent function, the resulting first scaled and linearized voltages provided by the first resistor string being provided as first scaled input signals to corresponding ones of the plurality of first comparators, each of the first comparators receiving as inputs thereto the first analog signal and a corresponding first scaled and linearized input signal, and providing as outputs therefrom first comparator outputs, and providing the first comparator outputs to an analog-to-digital converter (“ADC”) and a processor to yield at least one digitally interpolated first output signal, wherein each of the at least one interpolated first output signals has a corresponding frequency that is an integer multiple of the first frequency, and outputs provided by the ADC to the processor are substantially linearized.
In still other embodiments, there is provided a circuit for linearizing and subsequently digitally interpolating a sinusoidal analog signal generated by a motion encoder, the sinusoidal analog signal having a first frequency, comprising a plurality of comparators configured to receive as inputs thereto the analog signal, a resistor string comprising a plurality of scaling and linearizing resistors arranged in series, each succeeding resistor in the resistor string being scaled differently in accordance with one of a sine, cosine, arc sine or arc cosine function, positive and negative reference voltages being provided to opposite ends of the resistor string, the resulting scaled and linearized voltages provided by the resistor string being provided as scaled input signals to corresponding ones of the plurality of comparators, each of the comparators receiving as inputs thereto the analog signal and a corresponding scaled and linearized input signal and providing as outputs therefrom comparator outputs, an analog-to-digital converter (“ADC”) configured to receive the comparator outputs and provide linearized outputs corresponding to each of the comparator outputs therefrom, and a processor configured to receive the linearized outputs from the ADC and to generate at least one digitally interpolated output signal therefrom, wherein each of the at least one interpolated output signals has a corresponding frequency that is an integer multiple of the first frequency.
Further embodiments are disclosed herein or will become apparent to those skilled in the art after having read and understood the specification and drawings hereof.
Different aspects of the various embodiments of the invention will become apparent from the following specification, drawings and claims in which:
The drawings are not necessarily to scale. Like numbers refer to like parts or steps throughout the drawings, unless otherwise noted.
Referring first to
Note that depending on the particular configuration of circuit 105 that is employed comparators 90a through 90g may be hysteresis or zero hysteresis comparators, and that adjoining pairs of comparators, for example comparators 90a and 90b, and 90c and 90d, can be configured to provide outputs corresponding to a single digital bit. The at least one interpolated output signal preferably comprises digital pulses having logic high levels separated by logic low levels.
Continuing to refer to
The processor which receives outputs from ADC 100 may be one of a digital processing block, an arithmetic logic unit (“ALU”), a central processing unit (“CPU”), a microprocessor, a controller, an application specific integrated circuit (“ASIC”), or a computer. In one embodiment, the processor comprises a divider circuit for interpolating the substantially linearized outputs provided by the ADC. Circuit 105 is an interpolation processing circuit, and may include scaling and linearizing resistors 82, comparators 90a through 90g, ADC 100 and the processor. In one embodiment, such an interpolation processing circuit is fabricated using a CMOS or BiCMOS process. Note that the substantially linearized outputs provided by ADC may be further interpolated in accordance with clock signals provided to or generated by the processor.
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Contrariwise, and referring now to
Table 1 below illustrates a comparison between pulse time-width results provided by conventionally-assigned resistor values in resistor string 82 (where the resistors all have the same value) and cosine-scaled resistor values in resistor string 82. As shown in Table 1, interpolated pulse widths provided by resistors of equal value are unequal and vary significantly from pulse to pulse. The nominal desired pulse width is 6.25 microseconds. Further as shown in Table 1, interpolated pulse widths provided by resistors of cosine-scaled values are equal and do not vary significantly from pulse to pulse.
Table 2 below illustrates cosine-scaled resistor coefficient values for individual resistors R1 through R9 in
Referring now to
Continuing to refer to
Note that depending on the particular configuration of circuit 105 that is employed comparators 90a through 90h may be hysteresis or zero hysteresis comparators, and that adjoining pairs of comparators, for example comparators 90a and 90b, and 90c and 90d, can be configured to provide outputs corresponding to a single digital bit. The interpolated first and second output signals preferably comprise digital pulses having logic high levels separated by logic low levels.
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Some of the various embodiments presented herein have certain advantages and features, including the ability to be implemented using standard CMOS or BiCMOS manufacturing processes, the ability to be implemented with relative ease and design simplicity, the ability to be implemented in both incremental and absolute motion encoders, and the ability to provide high interpolation factors without sacrificing timing accuracy.
Included within the scope of the present invention are methods of making and having made the various components, devices and systems described herein.
Various embodiments of the invention are contemplated in addition to those disclosed hereinabove. The above-described embodiments should be considered as examples of the present invention, rather than as limiting the scope of the invention. In addition to the foregoing embodiments of the invention, review of the detailed description and accompanying drawings will show that there are other embodiments of the invention. Accordingly, many combinations, permutations, variations and modifications of the foregoing embodiments of the invention not set forth explicitly herein will nevertheless fall within the scope of the invention.
This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/393,162 filed Feb. 26, 2009 entitled “Interpolation Accuracy Improvement in Motion Encoder Systems, Devices and Methods” to Mei Yee Ng et al., the entirety of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 12393162 | Feb 2009 | US |
Child | 12533841 | US |