High-resolution Diffraction Grating Interferometric Transducer of Linear Displacements

A high-resolution transducer of linear displacements is presented. The system is based on semiconductor laser illumination and a diffraction grating applied as a length master. The theory of the optical method is formulated using Doppler description. The relationship model among the interference strips, measurement errors, grating deflection around the X, Y and Z axes and translation along the Z axis is built. The grating interference strips' direction and space is not changed with movement along the X (direction of grating movement), Y (direction of grating line), Z axis, and the direction and space has a great effect when rotating around the X axis. Moreover the space is little affected by deflection around the Z axis however the direction is changed dramatically. In addition, the strips' position shifted rightward or downwards respectively for deflection around the X or Y axis. Because the emitted beams are separated on the grating plane, the tilt around the X axis error of the stage during motion will lead to the optical path difference of the two beams resulting in phase shift. This study investigates the influence of the tilt around the X axis error. Experiments show that after yaw error compensation, the high-resolution diffraction grating interferometric transducer readings can be significantly improved. The error can be reduced from +/-80 nm to +/-30 nm in maximum.