Development of an inductive encoder for simultaneous measurement of two-dimensional displacement

Two-dimensional measurements are usually performed by two one-dimensional devices. In this paper, a simple method is developed, which can directly measure the displacements in two dimensions. The measurement is based on inductive method where a flat coil moves on another flat coil and the induced voltages give the displacements in x and y directions. In this research, five flat coils with special patterns are used. One is stationary and four others make the moving part. When moving part moves on the stationary surface, two of the moving coils detect the displacement in x direction and the other two detect the displacement in y direction. The patterns of the coils are designed in a way that there is no interference between axes, i.e., movement in one dimension has no effect on data of other dimension. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the concept. Resolution of 10 μm and no interference between axes are achieved. Better resolution is expected if more precise experimental device is provided.