CN113432627A

CN113432627A - Transmitter and receiver arrangement for an inductive position encoder

Info

Publication number: CN113432627A
Application number: CN202110308462.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: T.S.库克
Original assignee: Mitutoyo Corp
Current assignee: Mitutoyo Corp
Priority date: 2020-03-23
Filing date: 2021-03-23
Publication date: 2021-09-24
Also published as: DE102021106510A1

Abstract

An electronic position encoder includes a scale and a detector. The detector includes a magnetic Field Generating Coil (FGC) having an Elongated Portion (EP) defining a generated magnetic field area (GFA) aligned with the sense winding to provide a position signal responsive to the scale interacting with the generated magnetic field. The sensing element and EP are fabricated at the "front" layer of the detector. The transverse conductor section (TCP) fabricated at the "back" layer is connected to the EP of the FGC via a feedthrough. A shield region in a layer between the front and back layers intercepts at least a majority of the projection of TCP towards the front layer to eliminate unwanted signal effects. FGC feedthrough generates a GFC feedthrough stray magnetic field. The feedthrough pairs that connect the sense winding signals to the back layers of the detector are specially configured to mitigate undesirable signal effects that may result from their coupling to GFC feedthrough stray magnetic fields.

Description

Transmitter and receiver arrangement for an inductive position encoder

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to measurement instruments, and more particularly, to inductive position encoders that may be used in precision measurement instruments.

Background

Various encoder configurations may include various types of optical, capacitive, magnetic, inductive, motion, and/or position transducers. These transducers use various geometries of transmitters and receivers in the readhead to measure motion between the readhead and the scale. Magnetic and inductive transducers are relatively stable to contamination and are therefore desirable in many applications.

U.S. patent No.6,011,389 (the' 389 patent) describes an induced current position transducer that can be used for high precision applications. U.S. patent nos. 5,973,494 (' 494 patent) and 6,002,250 (' 250 patent) describe incremental position sensing calipers and linear scales, including signal generation and processing circuitry, and 5,886,519 (' 519 patent), 5,841,274 (' 274 patent), and 5,894,678 (' 678 patent) describe absolute position sensing calipers and electronic tape measures using inductive current transducers. U.S. patent No.7,906,958 (' 958 patent) describes an induced current position transducer that can be used for high precision applications, where a scale having two parallel halves and multiple sets of transmit and receive coils mitigates certain signal offset components that might otherwise produce errors in the induced current position transducer. All of the foregoing are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety. As described in these patents, inductive current transducers can be manufactured using printed circuit board technology and are largely free of contamination.

However, such systems may be limited in their ability to provide certain combinations of user-desired features, such as a combination of signal strength, compact size, high resolution, cost, robustness to misalignment and contamination, and so forth. It would be desirable to provide an encoder configuration that provides improved combinations of these and other features.

Disclosure of Invention

This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the detailed description. This summary is not intended to identify key features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

An electronic position encoder is provided that can be used to measure the relative position between two elements along a measurement axis that coincides with the x-axis direction. In various embodiments, an electronic position encoder includes a scale, a detector portion, and a signal processing arrangement. The scale extends along a measurement axis direction and includes a signal-modulating scale pattern including at least a first pattern track having a pattern track width dimension along a y-axis direction perpendicular to the x-axis direction. In some embodiments, the signal modulating scale pattern comprises a first pattern track and a second pattern track extending in an x-axis direction parallel to the first pattern track. Each pattern track includes signal modulating elements arranged to provide a spatially varying characteristic that varies as a periodic function of position along the x-axis direction.

The detector portion is configured to be mounted adjacent to at least the first pattern track and to move relative to the at least the first pattern track along the measurement axis direction. In various embodiments, the detector portion comprises a multi-layer circuit element (e.g. a printed circuit board or a multi-layer circuit element) having a front surface that faces the scale during normal operation. These layers may include a shield conductor layer(s), a shield area layer(s), one or more receiver loop layers (typically two layers), and an elongated portion layer(s). The detector portion includes a magnetic field generating coil configuration, a conductive shielding area configuration, a set of shielding layer conductor portions, and a sensing winding configuration.

A magnetic field generating coil arrangement (transmitter) is fixed to the multilayer circuit element. The magnetic field generating coil arrangement includes an input section connected to the coil drive signal from the signal processing arrangement, and at least a first track magnetic field generating coil section configured to nominally surround a first track-generated magnetic field area nominally aligned with the first pattern track and to generate a first track-varying magnetic flux in the first track-generated magnetic field area in response to the coil drive signal. The first track magnetic field generating coil portion may be described as comprising first track first and second side elongate portion arrangements fabricated in one or more elongate portion layers of the multilayer circuit element and extending along the x-axis direction on first and second sides of a first track generated magnetic field region, wherein the first track first and second side elongate portion arrangements collectively span or define a first track elongate portion length dimension along the x-axis direction and a minimum y-axis direction spacing between the first track first and second side elongate portion arrangements defines the first track generated magnetic field region. The magnetic field generating coil arrangement further comprises a set of elongated partial feedthroughs, each elongated partial feedthrough extending between the elongated partial layer and the shielding conductor layer along a z-axis direction nominally perpendicular to the front surface of the multi-layer circuit element, the set of elongated partial feedthroughs comprising a first terminal set of elongated partial feedthroughs located at a first end of the elongated portion of the magnetic field generating coil arrangement and a second terminal set of elongated partial feedthroughs located at a second end of the elongated portion of the magnetic field generating coil arrangement. Each member of the first and second terminal sets of the elongated portion feed-through is connected to a respective end of the elongated portion of the magnetic field generating coil arrangement and a respective member of the set of shield layer conductor portions to convey drive signals therebetween.

The set of shield layer conductor portions includes component portions fabricated in the shield conductor layer of the multi-layer circuit component. Some of the shield layer conductor portions are included in a magnetic field generating coil configuration, and at least one such shield layer conductor portion is a transverse conductor portion extending along a direction perpendicular to the x-axis direction, and at least one such shield layer transverse conductor portion spans at least a minimum y-axis direction spacing between the first track first side and second side elongated portion configurations, and is included in a conductor path connecting the first track first side and second side elongated portion configurations in the first track magnetic field generating coil portion.

The conductive shield region arrangement includes at least one first track conductive shield region extending in the x-axis and y-axis directions and fabricated in a first track shield region layer located between the first track shield conductor layer and one or more receiver loop layers of the multi-layer circuit component relative to their position in the z-axis direction. The conductive shielding region structure comprises at least one first track conductive shielding region interposed in a z-axis direction between the receiver loop layer and a shielding layer lateral conductor portion spaced across at least a minimum y-axis direction, wherein the first track conductive shielding region is configured to intercept at least a majority of an area of the shielding layer lateral conductor portion projected in the z-axis direction towards a z-axis of the receiver loop layer.

The sensing winding configuration comprises a set of at least two respective spatial phase sensing windings comprising respective sensing elements and respective spatial phase signal connection arrangements. The respective spatial phase sense windings each include a plurality of sense elements including respective conductive receiver loops connected in series and fabricated in one or more receiver loop layers of the multilayer circuit element. The conductive receiver loops are distributed along the x-axis direction and at least a first track portion of the conductive receiver loops overlies a first track sensing element area that is nominally aligned with the first pattern track. The sensing elements in each respective spatial phase sensing winding are configured to provide a respective detector signal or detector signal contribution that is responsive to at least a local effect on the first track varying magnetic flux provided by adjacent signal modulating elements of the scale pattern. The respective spatial phase signal connection arrangements each include a pair of detector signal feedthroughs, each extending along the z-axis direction between the receiver loop layer and the shield conductor layer. One of the pair of detector signal feedthroughs is connected to a first signal connection node of the respective spatial phase sensing winding (e.g., directly or through a conductor portion located in a receiver loop layer) and to a signal processing configuration through a respective shield layer conductor portion. The other of the pair of detector signal feedthroughs is connected to the second signal connection node of the respective spatial phase sensing winding (e.g., directly or through a conductor portion located in a receiver loop layer) and to a signal processing configuration through a respective shield layer conductor portion, whereby the pair of detector signal feedthroughs is configured to input a detector signal from the respective spatial phase sensing winding to the signal processing configuration.

The signal processing arrangement may be operatively connected to the detector portion to provide the coil drive signal and configured to determine the relative position between the detector portion and the scale pattern based on a detector signal input from the detector portion.

In various embodiments according to the principles disclosed herein, a detector portion is configured as follows:

the detector signal feedthroughs of each respective spatial phase signal connection arrangement are located outside and beyond the end of the region of the magnetic field generated by the first track with respect to their position in the x-axis direction;

each subset of the elongated partial feedthroughs produces a respective feed-through stray magnetic field when transmitting the drive signal, comprising feed-through stray magnetic flux components oriented in an XY plane parallel to the x-axis and the y-axis;

the pair of detector signal feedthroughs of each respective spatial phase signal connection arrangement defines a respective feedthru inductive coupling region plane that nominally passes through a central axis of each feedthrough of the pair and further defines a feedthru inductive coupling region located in a plane between the feedthroughs of the pair; and is

The detector signal feedthrough pairs of each respective spatial phase signal connection arrangement are configured to compensate or minimize their respective detector signal components resulting from receiving a respective amount of feedthrough stray flux through their respective feedthrough inductive coupling regions by using at least one of arrangement characteristics a) or B), wherein:

A) the detector signal feedthrough pairs of the respective spatial phase signal connection arrangements are each configured such that their feedthrough inductive coupling region planes are at an angle of at most 25 degrees relative to each other in the XY plane, and the detector signal feedthrough pairs of the respective spatial phase signal connection arrangements are positioned in proximity to each other in the XY plane such that their feedthrough inductive coupling regions receive similar cross-feedthrough stray flux components in the XY plane; or

B) The detector signal feedthroughs of the respective spatial phase signal connection arrangements are each configured such that their plane of the feedthru inductive coupling region makes up to a 25 degree angle in the XY plane relative to a feedthru stray flux component that is parallel to the XY plane and passes through a central region of their feedthru inductive coupling region.

In some embodiments of the electronic position encoder, the set of spatial phase sensing windings comprises at least three respective spatial phase sensing windings, and their associated detector signal feedthrough pairs are configured according to the arrangement characteristic a). In some such embodiments, the associated detector signal feedthrough pairs are configured such that their feedthrough inductive coupling areas differ by at most 20%. In some such embodiments, the associated detector signal feedthrough pairs are configured such that their feedthrough inductive coupling region planes are nominally parallel.

In some embodiments of the electronic position encoder, the set of spatial phase sensing windings comprises at least two respective spatial phase sensing windings, and their associated detector signal feedthroughs are configured for each according to the arrangement characteristic B). In some such embodiments, the associated pairs of detector signal feedthroughs are each configured such that their plane of the feedthru inductive coupling region makes up to 10 degrees of angle in the XY plane relative to a feed-through stray flux component that is parallel to the XY plane and passes through a central region of their feedthru inductive coupling region. In some such embodiments, the associated detector signal feedthrough pairs are configured such that their feedthrough inductive coupling areas differ by at most 20%.

In some "single track" embodiments according to the arrangement characteristic B), the first terminal set of elongated portion feedthroughs located at a first end of the elongated portion of the magnetic field generating coil configuration and the second terminal set of elongated portion feedthroughs located at a second end of the elongated portion of the magnetic field generating coil configuration are each made up of two elongated portion feedthroughs connected to a respective first track elongated portion. Some such single track implementations may be configured as follows: the associated pair of detector signal feedthroughs can each be configured such that their feedthru inductive coupling regions lie near an XZ mid-plane that is parallel to the x-axis and z-axis directions and aligned along a center of the region of the magnetic field generated by the first track with respect to the y-axis direction, and whose feedthru inductive coupling region plane is at most 10 degrees in the XY-plane with respect to the XZ mid-plane. In some such configurations, the associated detector signal feedthrough pairs are each configured such that their feedthrough inductive coupling region planes are nominally parallel to each other. In some such configurations, the associated detector signal feedthrough pairs are each configured such that their feedthrough inductive coupling areas differ by at most 20%.

In some embodiments of the electronic position encoder, the set of spatial phase sensing windings consists of two respective spatial phase sensing windings, wherein the associated detector signal feed-through is configured for each further according to the arrangement characteristic a).

In some embodiments, the electronic position encoder is of the "dual track" type comprising first and second pattern tracks, and the set of spatial phase sensing windings comprises at least two respective spatial phase sensing windings, and their associated detector signal feedthroughs are configured for each according to the arrangement characteristic B), and wherein: the electronic position encoder is of the dual track type comprising first and second pattern tracks, wherein the magnetic field generating coil arrangement comprises a first track magnetic field generating coil portion operatively aligned with the first pattern track and a similar second track magnetic field generating coil portion operatively aligned with the second pattern track; a first terminal set of elongated portion feedthroughs located at a first end of the elongated portions of the magnetic field generating coil arrangement and a second terminal set of elongated portion feedthroughs located at a second end of the elongated portions of the magnetic field generating coil arrangement each comprising four elongated portion feedthroughs connected to respective first and second track elongated portions, wherein two adjacent central elongated portion feedthroughs in each of the first and second terminal sets are connected to adjacent first and second track elongated portions, respectively; the magnetic field generating coil is configured such that the drive current flows in opposite directions in two adjacent central elongated portion feedthroughs and the magnetic field polarity is the same in the magnetic field regions generated by the first track and the second track; and the associated detector signal feedthroughs are configured for each such that: their feed-through inductive coupling regions are located in the vicinity of an XZ mid-plane parallel to the x-axis and z-axis directions and nominally aligned with respect to the y-axis direction midway between two adjacent central elongate portion feeds-through or midway between the regions of magnetic field generated by the first track and the second track; and their plane of feed-through inductive coupling area is at most 10 degrees relative to the angle it forms with the XZ mid-plane.

In some such dual rail embodiments, the associated pair of detector signal feedthroughs are each configured such that their feedthru inductive coupling region planes are nominally parallel to each other. In some such embodiments, the associated detector signal feedthroughs are further configured for each such that their feedthru inductive coupling areas differ by at most 20%.

In some embodiments, the electronic position encoder is of the "dual track" type comprising first and second pattern tracks, and the set of spatial phase sensing windings comprises at least two respective spatial phase sensing windings, and their associated detector signal feedthroughs are configured for each according to the arrangement characteristic B), and wherein: the electronic position encoder is of the dual track type comprising first and second pattern tracks, wherein the magnetic field generating coil arrangement comprises a first track magnetic field generating coil portion operatively aligned with the first pattern track and a similar second track magnetic field generating coil portion operatively aligned with the second pattern track; a first terminal set of elongated portion feedthroughs located at a first end of the elongated portions of the magnetic field generating coil arrangement and a second terminal set of elongated portion feedthroughs located at a second end of the elongated portions of the magnetic field generating coil arrangement each comprise four elongated portion feedthroughs connected to respective first and second track elongated portions, wherein two adjacent central elongated portion feedthroughs in each of the first and second terminal sets are connected to adjacent first and second track elongated portions, respectively: the magnetic field generating coil is configured such that the drive current flows in the same direction in two adjacent central elongated portion feedthroughs and the magnetic field polarities are opposite to each other in the magnetic field regions generated by the first track and the second track; and the associated detector signal feedthroughs are each configured such that: their feed-through inductive coupling regions are located in the vicinity of an XZ mid-plane parallel to the x-axis and z-axis directions and nominally aligned with respect to the y-axis direction midway between two adjacent central elongate portion feeds-through or nominally aligned midway between the regions of magnetic field generated by the first track and the second track; and their plane of feed-through inductive coupling areas is at most 10 degrees in the XY plane relative to the YZ plane perpendicular to the XZ mid-plane.

In some such dual-rail embodiments, the associated pair of detector signal feedthroughs are each configured such that their feedthru inductive coupling region plane is nominally parallel to the YZ plane, and their feedthru inductive coupling regions intersect the XZ mid-plane. In some such embodiments, the associated detector signal feedthroughs are further configured for each such that their feedthru inductive coupling areas differ by at most 20%.

In some embodiments according to the principles disclosed herein, the detector signal feedthrough pairs of the first phase and second phase signal connection arrangements are each configured according to arrangement characteristics, and further configured according to arrangement characteristics.

In various embodiments according to arrangement characteristic a) and/or arrangement characteristic B), each respective spatial phase signal connection arrangement further comprises a pair of alignment conductor portions fabricated in the respective receiver loop layer, as follows: a first one of the pair of alignment conductor portions extends from a first portion of the conductive receiver loop of the spatial phase sensing winding associated therewith to provide a first signal connection node at a location where it connects with a first one of the pair of detector signal feedthroughs associated with the spatial phase sensing winding; a second one of the pair of aligned conductor sections extending from a second portion of the conductive receiver loop of its associated spatial phase sensing winding to provide a second signal connection node at a location where it connects with a second one of the pair of detector signal feedthroughs associated with its spatial phase sensing winding; and the pair of alignment conductor portions are arranged in their respective receiver loop layers such that at least a majority of their areas are aligned with each other along the z-axis direction.

It should be appreciated that the various embodiments described above may be particularly advantageous when used in conjunction with configurations in which the first track sensing element region extends in the x-axis direction over a first track sensing element region length dimension that is longer than the first track elongate portion length dimension, as disclosed herein with reference to fig. 4-8, and/or as described in commonly assigned co-pending U.S. patent application No.16/863,543, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

It should be noted that the terms "nominally surround" or "surround" as used herein apply to any generating coil portion or other loop portion referred to herein, which is a complete or incomplete "loop" so long as it is configured to provide operative coupling between an adjacent magnetic field or flux and an associated current flowing in that generating coil portion or other loop portion.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a hand tool type caliper using an electronic position encoder including a detector portion and a scale.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a prior art embodiment of a detector portion that may be used in an electronic position encoder.

Fig. 3 is an isometric view generally corresponding to fig. 2, showing a prior art embodiment of an end of a magnetic field generating coil configuration of a detector section, wherein the relative positions of the magnetic field generating elongated section and the conductive receiver loops in the detector section are more clearly shown.

FIG. 4 is a plan view illustrating a first exemplary embodiment of a detector portion and a compatible scale pattern that can be used in an electronic position encoder according to principles disclosed herein.

Fig. 5 is an isometric view showing a first exemplary embodiment generally corresponding to fig. 4, wherein the relative positions of the magnetic field generating elongated portion and the conductive receiver loops in the detector portion are more clearly shown.

Fig. 6 is an isometric view illustrating a second exemplary embodiment of a detector portion and a compatible scale pattern that may be used in an electronic position encoder according to the principles disclosed herein.

Fig. 7 is an isometric view illustrating a third exemplary embodiment generally in accordance with the principles disclosed herein and a compatible scale pattern that may be used with an electronic position encoder.

FIG. 8 is a plan view showing a fourth exemplary embodiment of a detector portion and a compatible scale pattern that can be used in an electronic position encoder.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating one exemplary embodiment of components of a measurement system including an electronic position encoder.

FIG. 10 is an isometric view showing a portion of the detector portion of FIG. 5, showing a portion of two sense windings, including a first embodiment of a signal connection arrangement to mitigate certain spurious signal errors in accordance with the principles disclosed herein.

FIG. 11 is an isometric view similar to FIG. 10 showing a portion of two sense windings including a second embodiment of a signal connection arrangement to mitigate or eliminate certain spurious signal errors in accordance with the principles disclosed herein.

FIG. 12 is an isometric view similar to FIG. 11 showing a portion of two sense windings including a third embodiment of a signal connection arrangement to mitigate or eliminate certain spurious signal errors in accordance with the principles disclosed herein.

FIG. 13 is an isometric view similar to FIG. 11 showing a portion of two sense windings including a fourth embodiment of a signal connection arrangement to mitigate or eliminate certain spurious signal errors in accordance with the principles disclosed herein.

Fig. 14 is an isometric view showing a portion of the detector portion of fig. 7, showing a portion of two sense windings, including a fifth embodiment of a signal connection arrangement similar to the fourth embodiment shown in fig. 13, which mitigates or eliminates certain spurious signal errors in accordance with the principles disclosed herein.

FIG. 15 is an isometric view showing a portion of the detector portion of FIG. 6, showing a portion of two sense windings, including a sixth embodiment of a signal connection arrangement that mitigates or eliminates certain spurious signal errors according to the principles disclosed herein.

Detailed Description

Fig. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a hand tool type caliper 100 that may utilize an electronic position encoder including a known detector portion 167 and a scale pattern 180, or a novel detector portion 167 and scale pattern 180 according to the principles disclosed herein. In the illustrated embodiment, the caliper 100 includes a scale member 102 and a slider assembly 120, the scale member 102 having a longitudinal beam of generally rectangular cross-section that includes a scale 170. In various embodiments, the scale 170 can extend along a measurement axis direction MA corresponding to the x-axis direction, and can include a signal modulating scale pattern 180. A known type of overlay 172 (e.g., 100 μm thick) may overlay the scale 170. The jaws 108 and 110 near the first end of the scale member 102 and the

movable jaws

116 and 118 on the slider assembly 120 are used to measure the dimensions of an object in a known manner. The slider assembly 120 can optionally include a depth bar 126, the depth bar 126 being constrained by an end stop 154 in a depth bar groove 152 below the scale member 102. The depth rod engagement end 128 may extend into the bore to measure its depth. The cover 139 of the slider assembly 120 may include an on/off switch 134, a zero switch 136, and a measurement display 138. The base 140 of the slider assembly 120 comprises a guide edge 142 which contacts a side edge 146 of the scale member 102, and a screw 147 biases a resilient pressure bar 148 against a mating edge of the scale member 102 to ensure correct alignment for measurement and for moving the readhead portion 164 relative to the scale 170.

A pick-up assembly 160 mounted on the base 140 holds a readhead portion 164. in this embodiment, the readhead portion 164 includes a multilayer circuit element 162 (e.g., a printed circuit board or pcb) carrying a detector portion 167. the detector portion 167 includes a magnetic field generating coil configuration and a set of sensing elements (e.g., collectively referred to as a magnetic field generating and sensing winding configuration) arranged along the measurement axis direction MA, and a signal processing configuration 166 (e.g., control circuitry). The elastomeric seal 163 may be compressed between the cover 139 and the multilayer circuit element 162 to exclude contamination from the circuit and connections. The detector portion 167 may be covered with an insulating coating.

In one particular illustrative example, the detector portion 167 can be arranged parallel to the scale 170 and facing the scale 170, and a front face or surface of the detector portion 167 facing the scale 170 can be spaced from the scale 170 (and/or the scale pattern 180) along the depth (Z) direction by a gap of about 0.5 millimeters. The readhead portion 164 and scale 170 together may form a transducer that is part of an electronic position encoder. In one embodiment, the transducer may be an eddy current or inductive type transducer that operates by generating a varying magnetic field that induces a circulating current, referred to as eddy currents, in some of the signal modulating elements of the scale pattern 180 that are placed within the varying magnetic field, as will be described in more detail below. It should be appreciated that the caliper 100 shown in fig. 1 is one of a variety of applications that typically implement electronic position encoders that have been developed over the years to provide a relatively optimal combination of compact size, low power operation (e.g., long battery life), high resolution and high accuracy measurements, low cost, robustness to contamination, and the like. Even a small improvement in any of these factors and/or in the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) achievable in a position encoder is highly desirable, but difficult to achieve, particularly in view of design constraints imposed for commercial success in various applications. The principles disclosed in the following description provide improvements in many of these factors in a particularly cost-effective and compact manner.

Fig. 2 and 3 are a plan view and an isometric view, respectively, showing a known prior art implementation of a detector portion 267 and a scale pattern 180 (which may be used as the detector portion 167 and the signal modulating scale pattern 180 in the electronic position encoder or the like shown in fig. 1). Only certain features of fig. 2 and 3 are described in detail below, so long as the description provides relevant background and explanation applicable to understanding certain similar features and operation of the novel electronic position encoder and detector portions further described below with reference to fig. 4-9. Additional details useful in understanding the embodiments shown in fig. 2 and 3 may be found in commonly assigned U.S. patent No.10520335 (the' 335 patent), the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

Fig. 2 is a plan view showing a known prior art embodiment of the detector portion 267 and the scale pattern 180. Fig. 2 may be considered partially representative and partially schematic. The detector portion 267 and an enlarged portion of the scale pattern 180 are shown in the lower part of fig. 2. In fig. 2, the various elements described below are represented by their shapes or outlines, and are shown superimposed on each other to emphasize certain geometric relationships. It should be appreciated that the various elements may be located on different fabrication layers in different planes along the z-axis direction as needed to provide various operating gaps and/or insulating layers, as will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art based on generally known design practices and/or as outlined in the following description and/or further description below (e.g., with reference to fig. 3). In the particular embodiment shown in fig. 2 and 3, the elongated sections EP1 and EP2 of the magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC overlap the conductive receiver loops SEN1-SEN24, and are therefore fabricated using a set of elongated section metal layers that includes at least a first inner metal layer of a multilayer circuit element that includes at least one metal layer that is closer than the first inner metal layer to the front surface of the detector portion facing the scale pattern 180, and the conductive receiver loops SEN1-SEN24 are fabricated using a set of receiver loop metal layers of the multilayer circuit element. Referring to the subject matter, the amplifying portion of the detector section 267 of fig. 2 shows two edges of each conductive receiver loop SEN14-SEN16 overlapping the elongated portions EP1 and EP2, the conductive receiver loops being shown in dashed lines closer to the front surface of the detector section than the elongated portions. (see also fig. 3.) on the other hand, the front view of the detector portion 267 of fig. 2 shows only two edges of each conductive receiver loop SEN1-SEN24 in solid lines, which is for ease of illustration only. It should be understood that the x-axis, y-axis, and/or z-axis dimensions of one or more elements may be exaggerated throughout the figures of the present disclosure for clarity.

The illustrated portion of the scale pattern 180 includes signal modulating elements SME, shown in dashed outline, which are located on the scale 170 (as shown in figure 1). In the embodiment shown in fig. 2, the y-direction ends of most of the signal-modulating elements SME are hidden under the first and second elongated portions EP1 and EP 2. It will be appreciated that during operation, the scale pattern 180 moves relative to the detector portion 267, as shown in figure 1.

In the example of fig. 2, the scale pattern 180 has a nominal scale pattern width dimension NSPWD along a y-axis direction perpendicular to the x-axis and includes discrete signal modulating elements SME arranged periodically along a measurement axis direction MA (e.g., corresponding to the x-axis direction). More generally, however, the scale pattern 180 may comprise various alternative spatial modulation patterns, including discrete elements, or one or more continuous pattern elements, as long as the pattern has a spatial characteristic that varies as a function of position along the x-axis direction, so as to provide a position-dependent detector signal (also referred to as a detector signal component in some embodiments) that is present in a sensing element SEN (e.g., SEN14) of the detector portion 267 according to known methods.

In various embodiments, the detector portion 267 is configured to be mounted near the scale pattern 180 and to move in the measurement axis direction MA with respect to the scale pattern 180. The detector section comprises a magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC and a plurality of sensing elements SEN, which may assume various alternative configurations to be used in various embodiments in conjunction with various corresponding signal processing schemes, as will be understood by those skilled in the art based on the following disclosure. FIG. 2 shows a single representative sense element group SEN1-SEN24, which in this particular embodiment includes series connected conductive receiver loops CRL1-CRL24 (alternatively referred to as sense loop elements, sense coil elements, or sense winding elements). In this embodiment, adjacent loop elements are connected by conductor arrangements (e.g., by feed-through connections) on the various layers of the multilayer circuit element, according to known methods, such that they have opposite winding polarities. That is, if a first loop responds to a changing magnetic field with a positive polarity detector signal contribution, then an adjacent loop responds with a negative polarity detector signal contribution. In this particular embodiment, the sensing elements are connected in series such that their detector signals or signal contributions add up, and the "added" detector signals are output to a signal processing arrangement (not shown) at detector signal output connections SDS1 and SDS 2. Although fig. 2 shows a set of sensing elements to avoid visual confusion, it is to be understood that in various embodiments, it may be advantageous to configure the detector to provide one or more additional sets of sensing elements (e.g., to provide quadrature signals) at different spatial phase positions, as will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art. It should be understood that the configuration of the sensing elements described herein is exemplary only, and not limiting. As an example, in some embodiments, individual sense element loops may output individual signals to corresponding signal processing configurations, for example, as disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. patent application publication No.2018/003524, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. More generally, in various embodiments, various known sensing element configurations can be used in conjunction with the principles disclosed and claimed herein for use in conjunction with various known scale patterns and signal processing schemes.

The various sensing elements and magnetic field generating coil configurations FGC may be secured to a substrate (e.g., the multi-layer circuit element 162 of FIG. 1). The magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC may be described as surrounding an inner region INTA having a nominal coil region length dimension NCALD along the x-axis direction and a nominal coil region width dimension of approximately YSEP along the y-axis direction. In various embodiments, the magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC may comprise a single turn around the inner region INTA. In operation, the magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC generates a varying magnetic flux in the inner region INTA in response to a coil drive signal.

In various embodiments, the magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC may comprise an input portion INP, first and second elongated portions EP1 and EP2, and a tip EDP (e.g. implemented as disclosed with reference to fig. 3). The input section INP comprises first and second connection sections CP1 and CP2, which connect the coil drive signals from a signal processing arrangement (e.g. signal processing arrangement 166 of fig. 1, or signal processing arrangement 966 of fig. 9, etc.) to a magnetic field generating coil arrangement FGC. In some embodiments, the first and second connection portions CP1 and CP2 may be connected to the signal processing arrangement by printed circuit board feedthroughs or the like, and these connections may also be shielded using principles similar to those disclosed below with reference to end electronic data processing. The first and second elongated portions EP1 and EP2 each extend along an x-axis direction adjacent or proximate to one side of the interior region INTA and have a nominal resulting trace width dimension NGTWD along a y-axis direction. In the illustrated embodiment, the nominal resulting trace width dimension NGTWD is the same for both the first and second elongated portions EP1 and EP2, but this is not a requirement in all embodiments. The end EDP (e.g. implemented as disclosed with reference to fig. 3) is spaced across the y-axis direction corresponding to the nominal coil width dimension YSEP between the first and second elongate portions EP1 and EP2 to provide a connection therebetween in the vicinity of the end of the inner region INTA. In the known embodiments shown in fig. 2 and 3, the magnetic-field-generating-coil configuration FGC is advantageously configured using design proportions, wherein each nominal-generation-trace-width dimension NGTWD may be at least 0.1, 0.15 or 0.25 times the nominal-coil-region-width dimension YSEP, and/or at least 25 times the skin depth of the elongated portions EP1 and EP2, so as to minimize the impedance of the magnetic-field-generating-coil configuration FGC at a nominal operating frequency defined in correspondence with the detector signal occurring in response to the varying magnetic flux. However, although it finds application in various known embodiments, it should be understood that this design ratio is not required in the various novel embodiments disclosed herein, which may otherwise minimize the impedance of the magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC.

The sensing elements SEN1-SEN24 are arranged along an x-axis direction (e.g., corresponding to the measurement axis direction MA) and are fixed on a substrate (e.g., the multi-layer circuit element 162 of FIG. 1). In the example of FIG. 2, each sense element SEN has a nominal sense element width dimension NSEWD in the y-axis direction, where at least a majority of the nominal sense element width dimension NSEWD is included within a nominal coil region width dimension YSEP in the y-axis direction. The sensing element SEN is configured to provide a detector signal that is responsive to the local effect of the changing magnetic flux provided by adjacent signal modulating portions (e.g., one or more signal modulating elements SME) of the scale pattern 180 of the scale 170. A signal processing arrangement (e.g., signal processing arrangement 166 of fig. 1, or signal processing arrangement 966 of fig. 9, etc.) can be configured to determine the position of the plurality of sensing elements SEN1-SEN24 relative to the scale pattern 180 (or the scale 170) based on detector signals input from the detector portion 267. In general, the magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC and the sensing elements SEN1-SEN24, etc. may operate in accordance with known principles (e.g., for inductive encoders), such as those described in the incorporated references.

In various embodiments, the magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC and the sensing element SEN are insulated from each other. In some embodiments, they are located in different metal layers separated by insulating layers in a multilayer circuit element, as previously described. This is the case in the known embodiment shown in fig. 2 and 3, where the nominal sensing element width dimension NSEWD of at least one sensing element SEN is advantageously larger than the nominal coil region width dimension YSEP between the elongated portions EP1 and EP2, and extends beyond the inner edge IE of at least one of the elongated portions EP1 or EP2 by an amount defined as the overlap dimension OD. Furthermore, in various embodiments, the magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC may advantageously be configured such that each nominal generating trace width dimension NGTWD is greater than the respective overlap dimension OD. These and other features described above with respect to the known embodiment shown in fig. 2 and 3 are generally selected to optimize impedance and signal coupling in the detector portion 267 so as to maximize its signal-to-noise ratio and/or accuracy. However, while they are useful in various known embodiments, it should be understood that these design features are not necessary in the various novel embodiments in accordance with the principles disclosed herein. As disclosed with reference to fig. 4-8, these novel embodiments may implement equal or better impedance and signal coupling by other means in order to achieve equal or better signal-to-noise ratio and/or accuracy.

As described above with reference to fig. 1, in various embodiments, the detector portion 267 can be included in various types of measurement instruments (e.g., calipers, micrometers, gauges, linear scales, etc.). For example, the detector portion 267 can be fixed to a slide member, and the scale pattern 180 can be fixed to a beam member having a measurement axis that coincides with the x-axis direction. In such a configuration, the slide member may be movably mounted on the beam member and may be movable along the measurement axis direction MA in a plane extending along the x-axis direction and the y-axis direction, wherein the z-axis direction is orthogonal to the plane.

Fig. 3 is a "wire frame" diagram generally corresponding to the isometric view of fig. 2 and illustrates a prior art embodiment of the end EDP of the magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC available in the detector portion 267, wherein the relative positions of the end EDP and the elongated portions EP1 and EP2 of the magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC and the conductive receiver loop SEN in the detector portion 267 are more clearly illustrated. It should be understood that the elements of detector portion 267 of FIG. 3 can be similar or identical to like-numbered elements of detector portion 267 of FIG. 2, and can be generally understood by analogy.

The detector section 267 is shown as including a magnetic field generating coil arrangement FGC and a plurality of sensing elements SEN1-SEN24 (representative sensing elements SEN17-SEN24 including conductive receiver loops CRL14-CRL24 are shown in fig. 3). The magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC comprises first and second elongated portions EP1 and EP2 and an end EDP, and is fixed to the multilayer circuit element 162 (e.g., the multilayer circuit element 162 shown in fig. 1) and nominally surrounds an inner region INTA.

In various embodiments, the magnetic field generating coil arrangement FGC and the sensing element SEN are insulated from each other, e.g. as previously described, in different conductive layers of a printed circuit board, which are separated by intervening insulating layers. In the particular embodiment shown in fig. 3, the elongated sections EP1 and EP2 of the magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC are fabricated using a set of elongated section metals or conductive layers that includes at least a first inner metal layer of the multilayer circuit element (at Z-coordinate Zep in fig. 3), and the conductive receiver loops SEN1-SEN24 are fabricated using a set of receiver loop metal layers of the multilayer circuit element that includes two metal layers (at Z-coordinate ZseL1 or ZseL2) that are closer to the front surface of the detector portion (at Z-coordinate Zfs) facing the scale pattern 180 than the first inner metal layer (at Zep). In fig. 3, the various marked Z coordinates may be understood to coincide with or identify the respective surfaces of the various layers of the multilayer circuit element. In various embodiments, the multilayer circuit element may include a PCB, a thick film hybrid circuit, a thin film circuit, or other alternative manufacturing methods may be used according to known methods. The signal modulating elements SME of the scale pattern 180 are located on the surface of the scale 170 (as shown in figure 1), at the Z-coordinate Zsme. It will be appreciated that the scale 170 is separate from the multi-layer circuit elements carrying the detector portion 267. As described above, the multilayer circuit element (detector portion 267) has a front surface (e.g., the front surface of the insulating coating) located at Z coordinate Zfs. There is an operating gap between the scale surface Z coordinate Zsme and the front surface Z coordinate Zfs. The sense element SEN includes interconnected conductive receiver loops fabricated using a set of receiver loop metal layers of a multi-layer circuit element that includes at least one metal layer at the Z-coordinate ZseL1 or ZseL 2. The conductive receiver loops may be connected between the layers (at Z-coordinates ZseL1 and ZseL2) using known types of conductive feedthroughs through insulating layers that typically separate the metal layers according to known methods so that the conductive portions of the conductive receiver loops may cross each other while connecting the sensing element signal contributions in a serial fashion and providing corresponding signal contribution polarities, as will be described more fully below.

In the particular embodiment shown in fig. 3, the first and second elongate portions EP1 and EP2 each extend along the x-axis direction and are nominally located at an elongate portion z-distance EPZD (Zep-Zfs) from the front surface (Zfs) of the multilayer circuit element facing the detector portion 267 of the scale pattern 180 along a z-axis direction that is perpendicular to the x-axis and y-axis directions. In some embodiments, a conductive receiver loop comprises: planar trace loop portions (at ZseL l1 and ZseL l2) formed in respective ones of the receiver loop metal layer groups; and a feedthrough portion including a plated hole connecting the planar trace portions between their respective layers. In the illustrated embodiment, the planar trace portions are fabricated in respective layers (at ZseL1 and ZseL2) that are closer to the front surface (at Zfs) of the detector portion than the first inner metal layer (at Zep). In some implementations, at least some of the planar trace portions of the conductive receiver loops can be fabricated in a respective layer (ZseL1 or ZseL2) that is a metal layer located on (Zfs) or closest to the front surface of the detector portion.

As previously described, the end EDP includes conductive paths spaced across the y-axis direction corresponding to the nominal coil region width dimension YSEP between the first and second elongate portions EP1 and EP2 to provide a connection therebetween near the ends of the inner region INTA. In the embodiment shown in fig. 3, the end EDP includes a shield end portion SES on the respective multilayer circuit element layer having a Z-coordinate ZSES, nominally located at a shield end portion Z-distance (ZSES-Zfs) from a front surface (Zfs) of the multilayer circuit element of the detector portion 267, where the shield end portion Z-distance sesd is greater than the elongated portion Z-distance EPZD. In the particular embodiment shown in fig. 3, the shielding end portion SES is offset from the ends of the elongated portions EP1 and EP2 in the x-axis direction, and a first connection portion CNP1 (e.g., comprising the multilayered circuit element feed-through CNP1A and the conductive trace CNP1B) connects the first elongated portion EP1 to a first end of the shielding end portion SES, and a second connection portion CNP2 (e.g., comprising the multilayered circuit element feed-through CNP2A and the conductive trace CNP2B) connects the second elongated portion EP2 to a second end of the shielding end portion SES. In another embodiment (not shown in fig. 3), the shielding end portion SES need not be significantly offset from the ends of the elongated portions EP1 and EP2 in the x-axis direction, and the conductive traces CNP1B and CNP2B may be omitted. That is, the multilayered circuit element feedthrough CNP1A may connect the first elongated portion EP1 to a first end of the "non-offset" shielding end portion SES, and the multilayered circuit element feedthrough CNP2A may connect the second elongated portion EP2 to a second end of the "non-offset" shielding end portion.

In any of the embodiments of the end EDP described above, the detector portion 267 also includes a conductive shielding region CSR (e.g., a conductive planar region represented by the somewhat arbitrarily placed dashed "edge" in fig. 3) that extends along the x-axis and y-axis directions and is nominally located on a corresponding multi-layer circuit element layer surface having a Z-coordinate Zcsr that is nominally located a shielding region Z-distance SRZD ═ (Zcsr-Zfs) from the front surface of the multi-layer circuit element of the detector portion 267. In various embodiments, the shield region z-distance SRZD is less than the shield end portion z-distance seszd and the conductive shield region CSR is located between at least a portion of the shield end portion SES and a front surface (Zfs) of the multi-layer circuit element of the detector portion 267. The conductive shielding region CSR may comprise a portion of an extended ground plane layer in a multilayer circuit element of the detector portion 267, or it may comprise a discrete region in some embodiments. The conductive shielding region CSR may include clearance holes such that the first and second connection portions CNP1 and CNP2 (e.g., multilayered circuit element feed-throughs) are separated or insulated from the conductive shielding region CSR.

As taught in the' 335 patent, prior to using the shielding end portion configuration according to the principles outlined above with reference to fig. 3, the magnetic field components generated by the end portions of the magnetic field generating coil configuration (e.g., the end portions extending in the y-axis direction) have caused error components, so-called "end effects," to appear in the detector signals of the sensing elements closest to them. Attempts have been made to use "tapered end configurations" in detectors, and/or to mitigate this end effect by distancing the magnetic field generating coil ends from the end sensing elements. However, these methods disadvantageously reduce signal strength, or increase the x-axis dimension of the detector, or both. In contrast, referring to fig. 3, the shielded end portion configuration outlined above tends to reduce and/or prevent the magnetic field components generated by the end portions from reaching the signal modulating element SME. In this way, the magnetic field component coupled to the nearest sensing element is smaller and/or approximately constant regardless of scale position, thus substantially mitigating any end effects. The' 335 patent further summarizes the shielding end portion configuration, such as that outlined above with reference to fig. 3, using the conductive shielding region CSR to reduce the effect of the shielding end portion SES on the sensing element SEN (e.g., associated with the changing magnetic flux), which may allow for a shorter overall x-axis dimension of the magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC (or detector portion 267), for which the end EDP need not be located away from the sensing element SEN to avoid affecting the detector signal generated in response to the changing magnetic flux, and so on.

However, although the' 335 patent (which is assigned herewith) suggests that the ends of the magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC need not be located as far from the sensing element SEN as the previous conventional configurations, it still discloses and teaches configurations that include only some of the spacing between the ends EDP of the magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC and the nearest sensing element SEN. In particular, the' 335 patent does not recognize or suggest that the end EDP or the shielding end portion SES may be located near or overlap any of the sensing elements SEN. Instead, the inventors have found that configurations in which the end EDP or the shielding end portion SES is close to and/or overlaps the sensing element SEN are advantageous. Or in other words, the inventors have found that an arrangement in which the magnetic field generating coil arrangement FGC is much shorter than previously known arrangements and in which a plurality of sensing elements SEN extend in the x-axis direction beyond the end EDP or the shielding end portion SES of the magnetic field generating coil arrangement FGC is advantageous. Various features and alternatives that may be used in such an arrangement are disclosed below with reference to fig. 4-8.

Fig. 4 and 5 are plan and perspective views, respectively, illustrating a first embodiment of a detector portion 467, and a compatible scale pattern 180 that may be used as the detector portion 167 and the signal modulating scale pattern 180 in the electronic position encoder and the like of fig. 1, in accordance with the principles disclosed and claimed herein. Detector portion 467 has certain features and components similar to those of detector portion 267 of fig. 2 and 3. In particular, elements denoted by like reference numerals in fig. 4 and 2 or in fig. 5 and 3 (e.g., like names or numbers or number "suffixes"), or elements that are significantly similar in different figures, are similar elements and may be understood to operate similarly unless otherwise noted below. Only certain features of fig. 4 and 5 are described in detail below so that this description is intended to emphasize novel features and/or benefits in accordance with the principles disclosed and claimed herein, and one of ordinary skill in the art can appreciate these figures by analogy with or by reference to other figures and descriptions included herein.

Fig. 4 is a plan view showing a first exemplary embodiment of a detector portion 467 and a compatible scale pattern 180 that can be used in an electronic position encoder. Fig. 4 may be considered partially representative and partially schematic. As previously mentioned, throughout the drawings of the present disclosure, it is to be understood that the x-axis, y-axis, and/or z-axis dimensions of one or more elements may be exaggerated for clarity. The detector portion 467 and an enlarged portion of the scale pattern 180 are shown in the lower portion of fig. 4. In fig. 4, the various elements described below are represented by their shapes or outlines, and are shown superimposed on each other to emphasize certain geometric relationships. It should be appreciated that the various elements may be located on different fabrication layers located in different planes along the z-axis direction as needed to provide various operating gaps and/or insulating layers, as will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art based on generally known design practices and/or as outlined in the following description and/or further description below (e.g., with reference to fig. 5).

As shown in fig. 4 and 5, the signal modulation scale pattern 180 includes a first pattern track FPT having a pattern track width dimension PTDY along a y-axis direction perpendicular to the x-axis direction. The first pattern track comprises signal modulating elements SME arranged to provide a spatially varying characteristic that varies as a periodic function of position along the x-axis direction. The detector portion 467 is configured to be mounted near the first pattern track FPT and to move along the measurement axis direction MA with respect to the first pattern track FPT. The detector portion 467 includes a multi-layer circuit element (e.g., as described above) having a front surface facing a scale that carries the scale pattern 180 during normal operation. Detector section 467 includes a magnetic field generating coil arrangement FGC fixed to the multi-layer circuit element, as well as at least one first rail shield end arrangement sec (ft) and a plurality of sensing elements SEN, as described in more detail below.

As shown in fig. 4, the magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC includes an input portion INP including at least two connecting portions ICP1, ICP2 that connect the magnetic field generating coil configuration to coil drive signals from a signal processing configuration (e.g., signal processing configuration 166 of fig. 1 or 966 of fig. 9), and a first track magnetic field generating coil portion fgcp (ft) configured to nominally surround a first track-generated magnetic field region gfa (ft) aligned with the first pattern track FPT and generate a first track-varying magnetic flux in the first track-generated magnetic field region gfa (ft) in response to the coil drive signals. The first rail magnetic field generating coil section FGCP shown in fig. 4 includes a first rail first side elongated section EPS1(FT) and a first rail second side elongated section EPS2(FT), which are fabricated in one or more elongated section layers EPL of the multilayer circuit element (e.g., as shown in fig. 5) and extend along the x-axis direction adjacent to the first and second sides S1, S2 of the first rail generated magnetic field region gfa (FT). The first track first and second side elongate portions EPS1(FT) and EPS2(FT) collectively span or define a first track elongate portion length dimension EPDX along the x-axis direction, and the y-axis directional spacing between the first track first and second side elongate portions EPS1(FT) and EPS2(FT) defines a first track generated magnetic field region minimum width dimension gfady (FT). The first orbital magnetic field generating coil portion Fgcp (FT) further includes a first orbital shield end portion (also referred to as a shield conductor layer) ses (FT) fabricated in the first orbital shield end portion layer sesl (FT) of the multi-layer circuit element (as shown, for example, in fig. 5) and spanning the y-axis direction spacing between the first and second side elongated portions EPS1(FT) and EPS2(FT) and included in the end conductor path ECP connecting the first and second side elongated portions EPS1(FT) and EPS2(FT) in the first orbital magnetic field generating coil portion Fgcp (FT).

The first track shield end configuration sec (ft) includes the first track shield end portion ses (ft) described above and a first track conductive shield region csr (ft) (e.g., as shown in fig. 5). As described in more detail below with reference to fig. 5, the conductive shielding regions csr (ft) are included in the conductive shielding region configuration CSRC and extend along the x-axis and y-axis directions and are fabricated in a first track shielding region layer (shielding conductor layer) srl (ft) between the first track shielding end portion layer sesl (ft) and one or more receiver loop layers RLL (e.g., RLL1 and RLL2) of the multi-layer circuit element with respect to their position along the z-axis direction (the z-axis direction being nominally perpendicular to the front surface of the multi-layer circuit element).

As shown in fig. 4, the plurality of sensing elements SEN (e.g., SEN1-SEN24) includes respective conductive receiver loops CRL (e.g., CRL1-CRL24) fabricated in one or more receiver loop layers RLL (e.g., RLL1 and RLL2 as shown in fig. 5) of the multi-layer circuit element, wherein the conductive receiver loops CRL are distributed along the x-axis direction over a first track sensing element region sea (ft) that is nominally aligned with the first pattern track FPT. The sensing element SEN is configured to provide a detector signal or detector signal contribution that is responsive to a local effect on the first track varying magnetic flux provided by the adjacent signal modulating elements SME of the scale pattern 180. The sensing element SEN is described in more detail below with reference to fig. 5.

It will be appreciated that a signal processing arrangement (e.g., signal processing arrangement 566 of fig. 5, etc.) may be operatively connected to the detector portion 467 to provide the coil drive signals (e.g., at connection points ICP1 and ICP2), and may be configured to determine the relative position between the detector portion 467 and the scale pattern 180 based on the detector signals input from the detector portion 467 (e.g., at detector signal output connections SDS1 and SDS2 as shown in fig. 4, and as described in more detail below with reference to the signal processing arrangement 566 shown in fig. 5).

Fig. 5 is a "wire-frame" diagram illustrating an isometric view generally corresponding to the first exemplary embodiment of fig. 4, wherein one exemplary embodiment of the relative placement of the magnetic field generating elongated portions EPS1 and EPS2, the shielding end portions SES and end conductor paths ECP of the magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC, and the conductive receiver loop CRL in the detector portion 467 is more clearly illustrated. For clarity of illustration, fewer sensing elements SEN and/or conductive receiver loops CRL are included in fig. 5 than in fig. 4, but these elements may be understood to be similar to those in fig. 4 and 5. Fig. 5 may be considered partially representative and partially schematic. For clarity of illustration, the "first track" suffix (FT) used in fig. 4 has been omitted from the reference numerals/names in fig. 5. However, it should be understood that the elements shown in FIG. 5 may be considered "first track" elements despite this omission and may instead be considered as being useful as "second track" elements (corresponding to the reference name suffix ("(ST)") which may be used in certain embodiments described in more detail below. it should be understood that the elements of detector portion 467 of FIG. 5 may be similar or identical to similarly numbered elements of detector portion 467 of FIG. 4 and may be generally understood by analogy.

As shown in fig. 5, the signal modulation scale pattern 180 includes a first pattern track FPT having the aforementioned features and dimensions. The detector portion 467 is configured to be mounted near the first pattern track FPT and to move relative thereto along the measurement axis direction MA. It will be appreciated that detector portion 467 includes multiple layers of circuit elements, e.g., as previously described and represented by conductive layers separated by insulating layers in accordance with known principles, as described below. The multilayer circuit element will be understood to have a front surface facing a scale which carries the scale pattern 180 during normal operation. The detector portion 467 comprises a magnetic field generating coil arrangement FGC fixed to the multilayer circuit element, and at least one first track shield end arrangement SEC, and a plurality of sensing elements SEN comprising conductive receiver loops CRL, as described in more detail below.

As shown in fig. 5, the magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC includes an input section INP and a first track magnetic field generating coil section FGCP configured to nominally surround a first track-generated magnetic field region GFA that is nominally aligned with the first pattern track FPT and to generate a first track-varying magnetic flux in the first track-generated magnetic field region GFA in response to the coil drive signals from the signal processing configuration 566.

In the particular embodiment shown in fig. 5, the input section INP comprises two input connection sections ICP1A and ICP2A, which are connected to input connection sections ICP1B and ICP2B, respectively, which input connection sections ICP1B and ICP2B connect the magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC to the coil drive signal from the signal processing configuration 566.

The first rail magnetic field generating coil section FGCP shown in fig. 5 comprises a first rail first side elongated section EPS1 and a first rail second side elongated section EPS2, which are fabricated in one or more elongated part layers EPL of the multilayer circuit element. The layers EPL and other layers described herein are represented in fig. 5 by reference numerals and dashed lines corresponding to exemplary planes of the layers. First rail first side elongated portion EPS1 and first rail second side elongated portion EPS2 extend in the x-axis direction proximate first and second sides S1, S2 of first rail generated magnetic field region GFA. The first rail first and second side elongate portions EPS1 and EPS2 collectively span or define a first rail elongate portion length dimension EPDX along the x-axis direction, and the y-axis directional spacing between the first rail first and second side elongate portions EPS1 and EPS2 defines a nominal first rail generated magnetic field region width dimension GFADY.

The first rail magnetic field generating coil portion FGCP further includes a first rail shielding end portion SES fabricated in a first rail shielding end portion (also referred to as a shielding conductor layer) SESL of the multilayer circuit element and spaced across the y-axis direction between the first and second rail first and second side elongated portions EPS1 and EPS2 and included in an end conductor path ECP connecting the first and second rail first and second side elongated portions EPS1 and EPS2 in the first rail magnetic field generating coil portion FGCP. In the particular embodiment shown in fig. 5, the end conductor path ECP includes a first rail shield end portion SES, end conductor path portions ECP1B and ECP2B and two end conductor path portions ECP1A and ECP2A which are feed-through elements connected to end conductor path portions ECP1B and ECP2B, respectively, to connect first rail first and second side elongated portions EPS1 and EPS2 through the shield end portion SES in the first rail magnetic field generating coil portion FGCP. In the particular embodiment shown in fig. 5, the shield end portion SES is offset from the ends of the elongated portions EPS1 and EPS2 in the x-axis direction, which necessitates the use of end conductor path portions ECP1B and ECP2B in the end conductor path ECP. In an alternative embodiment (not shown in fig. 5), the shield end portion SES need not be significantly offset in the x-axis direction relative to the ends of the elongated portions EPS1 and EPS2 (particularly in alternative configurations where the conductive shield region is enlarged in the x-axis direction, as indicated by arrows a1 or a2 in fig. 5). In such an alternative embodiment, the end conductor path portions ECP1B and ECP2B may be omitted. That is, feed-through element ECP1A may connect first elongated portion EP1 to a first end of "non-offset" shield end portion SES, and feed-through element ECP2A may connect second elongated portion EP2 to a second end of "non-offset" shield end portion SES. As shown in fig. 5, two end conductor path portions or feed-through elements ECP1A and ECP2A extend in the z-axis direction and pass through the conductive shield region CSR with an insulating gap INSV and connect the first and second side elongated portions EPS1 and EPS2 via the end conductor paths ECP through the shield end portions SES. In various embodiments, which may use various configurations of the conductive shielding region CSR and/or the end conductor path ECP, each connection between the first track elongate portion (e.g., EPS1 or EPS2) and the first track shield end portion SES includes a feed-through element (e.g., a PCB feed-through element) similar to that outlined above.

In the particular embodiment shown in fig. 5, the first track shield end configuration SEC includes the first track shield end portion SES and the first track conductive shield region CSR outlined above, which in one embodiment may be configured substantially as shown by the solid line in the first track shield end configuration SEC in fig. 5. As shown in fig. 5, the conductive shielding region CSR may be considered to be comprised in the conductive shielding region configuration CSRC (which may comprise an additional conductive shielding region CSR' in some embodiments). In various embodiments, the conductive shield region CSR generally extends to various degrees in the x-axis and y-axis directions and is fabricated in a first track shield region layer SRL that is located between a first track shield end portion layer (shield conductor layer) SESL and one or more receiver loop layers RLLs of the multi-layer circuit element relative to the position of the one or more receiver loop layers RLLs (e.g., RLL1 and RLL2) in the z-axis direction.

As shown in fig. 4 and 5, the plurality of sensing elements SEN (e.g., SEN1-SEN24) includes respective conductive receiver loops CRL (e.g., CRL1-CRL24) fabricated in one or more receiver loop layers RLL (e.g., RLL1 and RLL2) of the multi-layer circuit element, wherein the conductive receiver loops CRL are distributed along the x-axis direction over first track sensing element areas SEA (having respective dimensions SEADX and SEADY) nominally aligned with the first pattern track FPT. The sensing element SEN is configured to provide a detector signal or detector signal contribution that is responsive to a local effect on the first track varying magnetic flux provided by the adjacent signal modulating elements SME of the scale pattern 180. In the particular embodiment shown in fig. 5, the conductive receiver loop CRL does not overlap the first and second side elongated portions EPS1 and EPS2 of the first track. Thus, in some embodiments of the detector portion 467, the elongated portion layer EPL and one of the receiver loop layers RLL1 or RLL2 may be the same layer of the multilayer circuit element, and at least one of the first track elongated portions EPS1 and EPS2 and at least some portions of the conductive receiver loop CRL may be fabricated in the same layer, as compared to the layers in the detector portion 267.

As previously outlined in describing the particular input section INP shown in fig. 5, the signal processing arrangement 566 may be operatively connected to the detector section 467, for example, by two input connections ICP1A and ICP2A connected to input connections ICP1B and ICP2B respectively, which two input connections ICP1B and ICP2B connect the magnetic field generating coil arrangement FGC to the coil drive signal from the signal processing arrangement 566. The signal processing arrangement 566 may be further configured to determine the relative position between the detector portion 467 and the scale pattern 180, as shown in fig. 5, based on the detector signal input from the detector portion 467, for example at detector signal output connections SDS1 and SDS 2. In the particular embodiment shown in fig. 5, detector signal output connections SDS1 and SDS2 are connected to signal processing arrangement 566 via feed-through elements DSFT1 and DSFT2, respectively, feed-through elements DSFT1 and DSFT2 passing through conductive shielding region CSR' with insulating void insp and being connected to signal processing arrangement 566. It should be understood that the connection portions and the conductive shielding regions CSR' used in the input portion INP are similar to the end conductor portions and the shielding end portions SES and the conductive shielding regions CSR used in the first track shielding end configuration SEC in fig. 5. It should be appreciated that in various embodiments, it may be advantageous to shield various connection portions of the input portion INP (as well as the circuitry and connections associated with the signal processing arrangement 566, if desired) using principles similar to those disclosed with reference to the first track shield end arrangement SEC.

Fig. 4 and 5 show a single representative sensing element group SEN1-SEN24, which includes series-connected conductive receiver loops CRL1-CRL 24. In this particular embodiment, adjacent loop elements are connected by conductor arrangements on the two conductive receiver loop layers RLL1 and RLL2, according to known methods, such that they have opposite winding polarities, as outlined above with reference to detector portion 267. The sensing elements SEN (conductive receiver loops CRL) are connected in series such that their detector signals or signal contributions are added up and the "added" detector signals are output to the signal processing arrangement 566 at detector signal output connections SDS1 and SDS 2. While fig. 4 and 5 show a set of sense elements SEN to avoid visual confusion, it will be appreciated that in various embodiments, it may be advantageous to configure the detector to provide one or more additional sets of sense elements (e.g., to provide quadrature signals) at different spatial phase positions and to connect them to the signal processing arrangement 566 in a similar manner, as will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art. Accordingly, it should be understood that the configuration of the sensing element SEN described herein is merely exemplary and not limiting. As an example, in some embodiments, separate sensing element loops may output separate signals to respective signal processing configurations, such as described in commonly assigned U.S. patent application publication No.2018/003524, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. More generally, in various embodiments, various known sensing element configurations can be used in conjunction with the principles disclosed and claimed herein for use in conjunction with various known scale patterns and signal processing schemes.

The embodiments shown in fig. 4 and 5 include important and noteworthy features that differ from those used in the detector portion of known prior art electronic position encoders.

First, the first track sensing element area sea (ft) extends over a first track sensing element area length dimension seadx (ft) along the x-axis direction and a first track sensing element area width dimension seady (ft) along the y-axis direction, wherein the first track sensing element area length dimension seadx (ft) along the x-axis direction is longer than the first track elongated portion length dimension epdx (ft). In contrast, along the x-axis direction, the first rail elongate portion length dimension epdx (ft) may be significantly shorter than the first rail sense element area length dimension seadx (ft). Surprisingly, the inventors have determined that such a configuration may allow for unexpected balances and advantages related to signal level, signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio and/or accuracy, and manufacturing costs in electronic position encoders in accordance with the principles disclosed herein. For example, it will be appreciated that in such a case, the detector portion 467 may be much shorter than known detector portions, and the relatively shorter first-rail first-side and second-side elongated portions EPS1 and EPS2 may contribute significantly less resistance to the relatively shorter magnetic field generating configuration FGC, which may also have an inherently lower impedance compared to known magnetic field generating configurations. Accordingly, unexpectedly high signal levels may be achieved in a practical manner while relatively suppressing deleterious end effects as described below, such that various limitations on known magnetic field generating configurations and detector portion configurations taught in the prior art may be alleviated or eliminated while also reducing manufacturing costs.

In some such embodiments, the first rail sensing element area length dimension SEADX may extend beyond the first rail elongate section length dimension EPDX at each end along the x-axis direction by at least an amount SE, as shown in fig. 5. In some embodiments, the inventors have found that it may be advantageous for accuracy if the quantity SE is at least K times the nominal first track-generated magnetic field region width dimension GFADY, where K is a number of at least 1. In some such embodiments, it may be more advantageous for accuracy if K is at least 2. As shown in fig. 5, the signal modulation elements of the first pattern track may be arranged corresponding to a spatial wavelength WL along the x-axis direction. According to additional design principles discovered by the inventors, it is also advantageous for accuracy if the quantity SE is further at least as large as WL in some embodiments, with K being at least 1. In some such embodiments, it may be more advantageous for accuracy if the quantity SE is further at least as large as 2 × WL.

Second, the first track shield end portion SES is configured such that its z-axis projection in the z-axis direction towards the receiver loop layer at least partially overlaps the conductive receiver loop CRL in the first track sensing element area SEA, for example as best shown in fig. 5 with reference to the first track shield end portion SES and the conductive receiver loop CRL. It will be appreciated that this feature relates to the first track elongate portion length dimension EPDX being shorter along the x-axis direction than the first track sensing element area length dimension SEADX, as described above. It is noteworthy, however, that such configuration features have been explicitly avoided in the teachings of the' 335 patent and known prior art detection sections, and thus impose undesirable design constraints that impact the cost, size, and/or accuracy with which such detector sections can be implemented.

Third, the inventors have found that it would be advantageous (e.g., for accuracy, robustness, and/or to facilitate low cost manufacturing) if the first track conductive shield region CSR were configured in its first track shield region layer SRL such that it was disposed between the first track shield end portion SES and the conductive receiver loops CRL in the first track sensing element region SEA, and configured to intercept (intercept) at least a majority of the area of the first track shield end portion SES that projected ZPROJ at the z-axis, which area overlaps the conductive receiver loops CRL in the first track sensing element region SEA. It will be appreciated that the conductive shield region CSR shown in solid lines in fig. 5 is configured to intercept all regions of the z-axis projection zprej of the first track shield end portion SES that overlap the conductive receiver loop CRL in the first track sensing element region SEA (except for the portion thereof that includes the insulating void insp surrounding the conductive feed-through that extends generally along the z-axis direction and through the at least one first track conductive shield region CSR), which may be advantageous in various embodiments. However, in some embodiments, a significant and sufficient accuracy advantage may be achieved if the illustrated first track conductive shielding region CSR is constricted in the x-axis direction as indicated by arrow a3, wherein the first track conductive shielding region CSR would be configured to intercept at least a majority of the z-axis projection zprej of the first track shielding end portion SES. In either case, known detector portion embodiments (e.g., such as those taught in the' 335 patent) do not recognize such configurations of the conductive shield region CSR as important, useful, or adaptable features, as they take advantage of the fundamentally different configuration or positional relationship between the first track shield end portion SES and the conductive receiver loop CRL in the first track sensing element region SEA.

It will be appreciated that the function of the first track conductive shield region CSR or the like is to mitigate or eliminate error induced "end effect" interactions of the field generated in the vicinity of the first track shield end portion SES with the sensing elements SEN and/or the signal modulating elements SME in the first track sensing element region SEA. The description of the configuration of the conductive shielding region CSR with respect to an imaginary projection of one or more of these elements is merely a practical way of defining an advantageous embodiment that achieves the desired mitigation or elimination of such error-induced "end effect" interactions.

The inventors have found that it is advantageous in some embodiments if the first track conductive shielding region CSR configured according to the principles outlined above is further configured according to additional design principles or design perspectives, wherein it is further configured such that it intercepts at least a major part of the area of the projection along the z-axis direction of the conductive receiver loops CRL distributed in the ends of the first track sensing element region SEA located outside the ends of the first track elongate section length dimension EPDX corresponding to the position of the first track shielding end portion SES. By way of further explanation, and not by way of limitation, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 5, the description corresponds approximately to a projection along the z-axis direction of the conductive receiver loop CRL (which is distributed along the dimension SE in the first track sensing element area SEA). It should be understood that the first track conductive shielding region CSR shown in solid lines in fig. 5 is configured according to this additional design principle.

The inventors have found that it is advantageous in some embodiments if the first track conductive shielding region CSR configured according to the principles outlined above is further configured according to additional design principles or design perspectives, wherein it is further configured such that it intercepts all areas of the projection along the z-axis direction of at least one conductive receiver loop CRL, which is distributed in a portion of the first track sensing element region SEA, which portion of the first track sensing element region SEA is located within an end of a first track elongated portion length dimension EPDX, which first track elongated portion length dimension EPDX corresponds to the position of the first track shielding end portion SES. By way of further explanation, and not limitation, in the embodiment shown in fig. 5, this description corresponds approximately to a projection along the z-axis direction of conductive receiver loop CRL14, and to first track conductive shield region CSR shown enlarged approximately along the x-axis direction as indicated by arrow a 1.

The inventors have found that in some embodiments it is advantageous to: the first track conductive shield region CSR configured according to the principles described above is further configured such that it intercepts all regions of projection along the z-axis direction of all conductive receiver loops CRL distributed in the first track sensing element region SEA except where at least one first track conductive shield region includes an insulating void surrounding a conductive feedthrough extending generally along the z-axis direction and passing through the at least one first track conductive shield region. By way of further explanation, and not by way of limitation, in the embodiment illustrated in fig. 5, the description generally corresponds to the first track conductive shielding region CSR shown enlarged along the x-axis direction as indicated by arrow a2, and merges/merges conductive shielding region CSR' with conductive shielding region CSR in conductive shielding region configuration CSRC.

It should be understood that the design principles and embodiments disclosed above with reference to fig. 4 and 5 differ from the prior art embodiment taught in the' 335 patent and shown in fig. 2 and 3 in several important respects.

In accordance with the first principle disclosed above, the first track sensing element area sea (ft) extends over a first track sensing element area length dimension seadx (ft) along the x-axis direction and a first track sensing element area width dimension seady (ft) along the y-axis direction, wherein the first track sensing element area length dimension seadx (ft) along the x-axis direction is longer than the first track elongated portion length dimension epdx (ft). For convenience, dimensions similar to the first rail sense element region length dimension, seadx (ft), are labeled seadx in fig. 2 (the suffix "ana" indicates similar meaning). For convenience, a dimension similar to the first track elongate section length dimension epdx (ft) is labeled EPDXana in fig. 2. It can be seen that, contrary to the design principles described above, the' 335 patent teaches the opposite. That is, as shown in FIG. 2, the analog value (analog) of the first track sensing element area length dimension SEADxana along the x-axis direction is significantly shorter than the analog value of the first track elongate section length dimension EPDxana. Or, in other words, the first track elongate section length dimension epdx (ft) shown in fig. 4 is much shorter (e.g., half the length or less) than its analog EPDXana shown in fig. 2.

In accordance with the second principle disclosed above, the first track shield end portion SES (ft) shown in fig. 4 is configured such that its z-axis projection in the z-axis direction towards the receiver loop layer at least partially overlaps the conductive receiver loop CRL in the first track sensing element area sea (ft) (e.g., as shown and described in further detail with reference to the first track shield end portion SES shown in fig. 5). For convenience, features in fig. 2 and 3 similar to the first track shield end portion ses (ft) are labeled sesaa (the suffix "ana" indicates similar meaning). It can be seen that, contrary to the design principles described above, the' 335 patent teaches the opposite. That is, as shown in fig. 2 and 3, the simulation of the first track shield end portion is configured such that it is intentionally located at a substantial distance from the nearest end conductive receiver loop CRL, and its z-axis projection in the z-axis direction toward the receiver loop layer is prohibited from overlapping (that is, being significantly distant from) the conductive receiver loops CRL in fig. 2 and 3 in their respective sensing element regions. Such limitations taught in the' 335 patent and illustrated in fig. 2 and 3 prevent several features and advantages associated with the electronic position encoder and detector portion design principles disclosed and claimed herein.

According to the third principle disclosed above, the first track conductive shield region CSR (ft) is configured in its first track shield region layer SRL such that it is interposed between the first track shield end portion ses (ft) and the conductive receiver loops CRL in the first track sensing element region sea (ft), and is configured to intercept at least a majority of an area of the z-axis projection of the first track shield end portion ses (ft) that overlaps the conductive receiver loops CRL in the first track sensing element region (e.g. as shown and described in detail with reference to the conductive shield region CSR and the conductive shield region configuration CSRC shown in fig. 5). Features similar to the conductive shielding region CSR in fig. 3 are also labeled CSR. As can be seen from fig. 3, contrary to the design principle outlined above, the' 335 patent teaches that the conductive shield region CSR need not be configured in its first track shield region layer (which is located at the Z-position Zcsr in fig. 3) such that it is interposed between the first track shield end portion SES and the conductive receiver loop CRL in their respective first track sensing element regions. As can also be seen in fig. 3, in contrast to the design principles outlined above, the' 335 patent further teaches that the conductive shield region CSR need not be configured to intercept at least a substantial portion of a region of the z-axis projection of the first track shield end portion SES that overlaps the conductive receiver loop CRL in the first track sensing element region. That is, as shown in fig. 3, the simulation of the first track shield end portion SESana is configured such that it and its corresponding conductive shield region CSR are intentionally located at a substantial distance from the nearest end conductive receiver loop CRL. Thus, its z-axis projection in the z-axis direction is prohibited from overlapping (i.e., significantly distancing) the conductive receiver loop CRL in its corresponding sensing element region in fig. 3. Furthermore, the conductive shield regions CSR shown in fig. 3 are also significantly distant from the conductive receiver loops CRL in their respective sensing element regions.

Thus, in light of the foregoing explanation, the teachings of the' 335 patent (e.g., as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3) are not in accordance with the electronic position encoder and detector portion design principles disclosed and claimed herein. This is because the' 335 patent is directed to a detector portion configuration that includes certain element relationships that are fundamentally different from detector portions configured in accordance with the principles disclosed and claimed herein. It is also a coincidence, rather than a clear teaching, if it is considered that there appears to be a mention in the' 335 patent of an arrangement that would satisfy the principles of the isolation design disclosed herein. Those of ordinary skill in the art should not be interpreted as implying any particular advantageous, desirable, or applicable design principle or feature herein disclosed or claimed.

Fig. 6 is an isometric "wire frame" diagram illustrating a second exemplary embodiment of a detector portion 667 and a compatible scale pattern 680 that can be used with an electronic position encoder in accordance with the principles disclosed herein. The detector portion 667 has certain features and components similar to those of the detector portion 467 of fig. 4 and 5. In particular, elements that are represented by like reference numerals in fig. 6 and 4 and 5 (e.g., like names or numbers or a digital "suffix"), or elements that are significantly similar in different figures, are like elements and may be understood to operate similarly unless otherwise indicated below. Only certain features of fig. 6 are described in detail below so that the description is intended to emphasize novel features and/or advantages in accordance with the principles disclosed and claimed herein, and one of ordinary skill in the art can appreciate the drawings by analogy to other drawings and descriptions in references included or incorporated herein. The detector portion 667 and compatible scale pattern 680 provide additional advantages over previously described embodiments in providing more robust signal accuracy and/or signal strength.

Broadly speaking, the main differences between the embodiment of fig. 6 and fig. 4 and 5 are as follows:

the scale pattern 680 includes, in addition to the first pattern track FPT, a second pattern track SPT, which is similar to the first pattern track FPT described previously; and is

The detector portion 667, in addition to first orbit detector portion elements (generally identified with the suffix (FT) 'indicating "first orbit"), includes second orbit detector portion elements (generally identified with the Suffix (ST)'), which are similar to the first orbit detector portion elements described previously.

As shown in fig. 6, the signal modulating scale pattern 680 includes a first pattern track FPT, which will be understood to have the features and dimensions outlined previously, and a second pattern track SPT, which is similar to the first pattern track FPT. The first and second pattern tracks FPT and SPT each include the same type of signal-modulating elements SME arranged along the x-axis direction in the first and second pattern tracks FPT and SPT according to the same spatial period or wavelength WL, wherein the signal-modulating elements SME in the second pattern track SPT are offset from the signal-modulating elements in the first pattern track by a nominal scale track offset of about WL/2 along the measurement axis direction.

The detector portion 667 is configured to be mounted in the vicinity of the first and second pattern tracks FPT and SPT and to be displaced relative thereto along the measurement axis direction MA. It will be appreciated that the detector portion 667 includes a plurality of layers of circuit elements, for example, as previously described, the conductive layers of which are represented by the various conductive elements shown in FIG. 6, which are separated by insulating layers in accordance with known principles as previously described. The detector portion 667 includes a magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC fixed to the multi-layer circuit element, as well as at least one first track shield end configuration SEC, and a plurality of sense elements SEN 'including conductive receiver loops CRL', as described in more detail below.

As shown in fig. 6, the magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC comprises an input section INP and first and second orbital magnetic field generating coil sections fgcp (ft) and fgcp (st). The first track magnetic field generating coil section fgcp (ft) is configured to nominally surround a first track-generated magnetic field region gfa (ft) nominally aligned with the first pattern track FPT and to generate a first track-varying magnetic flux in the first track-generated magnetic field region gfa (ft) in response to a coil drive signal from the signal processing arrangement. Similarly, the second track magnetic field generating coil portion fgcp (st) is configured to nominally surround a second track-generated magnetic field region gfa (st) nominally aligned with the second pattern track FPT and to generate a second track-varying magnetic flux in the second track-generated magnetic field region gfa (st) in response to the coil drive signals from the signal processing arrangement.

In the particular embodiment shown in fig. 5, the input section INP comprises two input connections ICP1 and ICP2, which are connected to the magnetic-field-generating coil configuration FGC by feedthroughs, and also to the signal processing configuration, as will be understood on the basis of the foregoing description.

The first rail magnetic field generating coil section fgcp (ft) shown in fig. 6 includes a first rail first side elongated section EPS1 and a first rail second side elongated section EPS2 fabricated in one or more elongated section layers of a multilayer circuit element as previously described. First track first side elongated portions EPS1(FT) and first track second side elongated portions EPS2(FT) extend along the x-axis direction proximate to first and second sides of first track generated magnetic field region gfa (FT). The first rail first and second side elongate portions EPS1(FT) and EPS2(FT) collectively span or define a first rail elongate portion length dimension epdx (FT) along the x-axis direction, and the y-axis directional spacing between the first rail first and second side elongate portions EPS1(FT) and EPS2(FT) defines a nominal first rail generated magnetic field region width dimension gfady (FT). Similarly, second rail first side elongated portion EPS1(ST) and second rail second side elongated portion EPS2(ST) extend in the x-axis direction near the first and second sides of second rail generated magnetic field region gfa (ST). The second rail first and second side elongate portions EPS1(ST) and EPS2(ST) collectively span or define a second rail elongate portion length dimension epdx (ST) along the x-axis direction, and the y-axis directional spacing between the second rail first and second side elongate portions EPS1(ST) and EPS2(ST) defines a nominal second rail generated magnetic field region width dimension gfady (ST).

The first rail magnetic field generating coil section Fgcp (FT) further comprises a first rail shielding end portion ses (FT) fabricated as previously described in the first rail shielding end portion layer (shielding conductor layer) of the multilayer circuit element and spaced across the y-axis direction between the first and second rail first and second side elongate portions EPS1(FT) and EPS2(FT) and included in an end conductor path ecp (FT) which also includes a feedthrough as shown and connects the first and second rail first and second side elongate portions EPS1(FT) and EPS2(FT) in the first rail magnetic field generating coil section Fgcp (FT). The second rail magnetic field generating coil portion fgcp (ST) further comprises a second rail shielding end portion Ses (ST) fabricated as previously described in the second rail shielding end portion layer (shielding conductor layer) of the multilayer circuit element and spaced across the y-axis direction between the second rail first and second side elongate portions EPS1(ST) and EPS2(ST) and included in an end conductor path ecp (ST) also including feedthroughs as shown and connecting the second rail first and second side elongate portions EPS1(ST) and EPS2(ST) in the second rail magnetic field generating coil portion fgcp (ST).

In the particular embodiment shown in fig. 6, the first track shield end configuration sec (ft) includes a first track shield end portion ses (ft) and a first conductive track shield region csr (ft), which in one embodiment may be configured approximately as shown by the dashed line in the first track shield end portion configuration sec (ft) in fig. 6. The second track shield end configuration sec (st) includes a second track shield end portion ses (st) and a second track conductive shield region csr (st), which in one embodiment may be configured approximately as shown by the dashed line in the second track shield end configuration sec (st) in fig. 6. As shown in fig. 6, the electrically conductive shield regions CSR (ft) and CSR (st) may be considered to be comprised in the electrically conductive shield region configuration CSRC (which may comprise an additional electrically conductive shield region CSR' in some embodiments). In accordance with principles outlined previously, in various embodiments, conductive shielding regions csr (ft) and csr (st) generally extend to different degrees along the x-axis and y-axis directions and are fabricated in a layer of shielding regions located between a layer of shielding end portions (shielding conductor layer (s)) of detector portion 667 and one or more layers of receiver loops of detector portion 667, relative to their position along the z-axis direction.

As shown in FIG. 6, the plurality of sense elements SEN 'include respective conductive receiver loops CRL' fabricated in one or more receiver loop layers of the multi-layer circuit element to operate in accordance with the principles outlined previously. However, in contrast to the previously described embodiments, one of the sensing elements SEN ' is distinguished in that, among the plurality of sensing elements, the conductive receiver loop CRL ' of the sensing element SEN ' extends along the y-axis direction to overlap the first pattern track FPT and the second pattern track SPT. Thus, they are distributed along the x-axis direction over both the first track sensing element area sea (ft) and the second track sensing element area sea (st) nominally aligned with the second pattern track SPT. The sensing element SEN ' is thus configured to provide a detector signal or detector signal contribution that is responsive to the local effect of the first track varying magnetic flux provided by the adjacent signal modulating elements SME of the first pattern track FPT of the scale pattern 180 ' and is also responsive to the local effect of the second track varying magnetic flux provided by the adjacent signal modulating elements SME of the second pattern track SPT of the scale pattern 180 '.

As indicated by the current arrows in fig. 6, the magnetic-field-generating coil arrangement FGC is configured to generate a first track-varying magnetic flux having a first polarity in the first track-generated-magnetic-field region gfa (ft), and to generate a second track-varying magnetic flux having a second polarity opposite to the first polarity in the second track-generated-magnetic-field region gfa (st). Conductive receiver loop CRL' is configured to extend into first and second track sensing element areas sea (ft) and sea (st) along the y-axis direction and to provide the same sensing loop polarity in first and second track sensing element areas sea (ft) and sea (st). This configuration operates in conjunction with a scale track offset of about WL/2 in the first and second pattern tracks FPT and SPT, resulting in enhanced signal contributions from the first and second track sense element regions sea (ft) and sea (st) in each sense element SEN'.

In the particular embodiment shown in fig. 6, the conductive receiver loop CRL' overlaps various elongated portions of the magnetic field generating coil configuration. Thus, in this particular embodiment of the detector portion 667, the elongated portion layer EPL is not the same layer as the receiver loop layer of the multi-layer circuit element, and blind vias (as that term is used in printed circuit board manufacturing techniques or other multi-layer manufacturing techniques, for example) may be required to fabricate the conductive receiver loop CRL' such that they remain insulated from the elongated portion layer EPL. However, based on the teachings of the present disclosure, one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that such embodiments are exemplary only, and not limiting.

It will be appreciated that a signal processing arrangement (e.g., similar to signal processing arrangement 566) may be operatively connected to the detector portion 667 in a manner similar to that outlined above with reference to fig. 5 and/or known methods via the two input connections ICP1 and ICP2, and via the detector signal output connections SDS1 and SDS2, etc. The signal processing arrangement may be configured to provide coil drive signals to the magnetic field generating coil arrangement FGC at two input connection portions ICP1 and ICP 2. The signal processing arrangement may also be configured to determine the relative position between the detector portion 667 and the scale pattern 180' based on the detector signal input from the detector portion 667, for example at detector signal output connections SDS1 and SDS2 and the like.

It will be appreciated that the connecting portions (e.g. connecting portions ICPFTST, ICP1, ICP2, feedthroughs, etc.) and conductive shielding regions CSR' used in the input portion INP are similar to the end conductor portions ECP, shielding end portions SES and conductive shielding regions CSR used in the first and second track shielding end configurations sec (ft) and sec (st) in fig. 6. It will be appreciated that in various embodiments it may be advantageous to shield various connection portions of the input section INP (and circuits and connections associated with signal processing arrangements, if required) using principles similar to those disclosed with reference to the first and second track shield end configurations sec (ft) and sec (st).

It will be appreciated that the detector portion 667 illustrated in fig. 6 and described above includes significant and noteworthy features previously outlined with reference to fig. 4 and 5 that differ from those used in the detector portions of known prior art electronic position encoders and provide the advantages and benefits previously outlined. Briefly summarized, the following steps are carried out:

first, the first track sensing element area sea (ft) extends in the x-axis direction over a first track sensing element area length dimension seadx (ft), which is longer than the first track elongated portion length dimension epdx (ft). Similarly, second rail sensing element area sea (st) extends along the x-axis direction over a second rail sensing element area length dimension seadx (st) that is longer than second rail elongated portion length dimension epdx (st).

Second, the first track shield end portion ses (ft) is configured such that its z-axis projection along the z-axis direction towards the receiver loop layer at least partially overlaps the conductive receiver loop CRL' in the first track sensing element area sea (ft). Similarly, the second track shield end portion ses (st) is configured such that its z-axis projection in the z-axis direction towards the receiver loop layer at least partially overlaps the conductive receiver loop CRL' in the second track sensing element area sea (st).

Third, the first track conductive shield region csr (ft) is configured in its first track shield region layer such that it is disposed between the first track shield end portion ses (ft) and the conductive receiver loops CRL 'in the first track sensing element region sea (ft), and is configured to intercept at least a majority of a region of the z-axis projection of the first track shield end portion ses (ft) that overlaps the conductive receiver loops CRL' in the first track sensing element region sea (ft). Similarly, the second track conductive shield region csr (st) is configured in its second track shield region layer (which may be the same as the first track shield region layer) such that it is interposed between the second track shield end portion ses (st) and the conductive receiver loop CRL 'in the second track sensing element region sea (st) and is configured to intercept at least a majority of an area of the z-axis projection of the second track shield end portion ses (st) that overlaps the conductive receiver loop CRL' in the second track sensing element region sea (st).

It should be understood that the conductive shield regions csr (ft) and csr (st) shown in fig. 6 are configured to intercept all regions of the z-axis projection of the first and second track shield end portions ses (ft) and ses (st) that overlap with the conductive receiver loops CRL' in the first and second track sensing element regions sea (ft) and sea (st) (except where it includes an insulating void surrounding the conductive feed-through), which may be advantageous in various embodiments. However, in some embodiments, significant and substantial accuracy benefits may be achieved if the first and second track conductive shield regions csr (ft) and csr (st) are slightly reduced in the x-axis direction, but still configured to intercept at least a majority of the area of the z-axis projection of the first and second track shield end portions ses (ft) and ses (st). This and other modifications can be made in the detector portion 667 in accordance with the principles outlined previously.

Fig. 7 is an isometric view "wire frame" diagram illustrating a third exemplary embodiment of a detector portion 767 and a compatible scale pattern 680 that may be used in an electronic position encoder according to the principles disclosed herein. The scale pattern 680 may be similar or identical to the scale pattern 680 described with reference to fig. 6. The detector portion 767 is substantially similar to the detector portion 667 described with reference to FIG. 6 and can be understood by analogy with the exception of the differences outlined below. Elements denoted by like reference numerals (e.g., like names or numbers or a numerical "suffix") in fig. 7 and 6 are like elements and may be understood to operate similarly and provide like benefits and advantages unless otherwise noted below.

Broadly speaking, the main differences between the embodiments of fig. 7 and 6 are associated with certain aspects of the magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC' and the plurality of sensing elements SEN "comprising the conductive receiver loop CRL", as described in more detail below.

As shown in fig. 7, in the magnetic-field-generating coil configuration FGC', the configuration of the input portion INP differs from that of fig. 6. In particular, the connecting portion ICP2 connects to the elongate portion EPS2(ST) rather than the elongate portion EPS1(ST), and the connecting portion ICPFTST connects the elongate portion EPS2(FT) to the elongate portion EPS1(ST) rather than the elongate portion EPS2 (ST).

As shown in fig. 7, in the region comprising the first and second track elongated portions between the first and second track generated magnetic field regions, the plurality of sense elements SEN "comprise in their conductive receiver loops CRL" intersections or twists of conductive traces providing opposite sense loop polarities in each respective sense element SEN "in the first and second track sense element regions sea (ft) and sea (st).

As a result of the foregoing, as indicated by the current arrows in fig. 7, the magnetic-field-generating coil arrangement FGC' is configured to generate a first track-varying magnetic flux having a first polarity in the first track-generated-magnetic-field region gfa (ft), and to generate a second track-varying magnetic flux having the same polarity as the first polarity in the second track-generated-magnetic-field region gfa (st). The twisted conductive receiver loop CRL "configured as described above provides opposite sense loop polarities in the first and second track sense element regions sea (ft) and sea (st). This configuration operates in conjunction with a scale track offset of about WL/2 in the first and second pattern tracks FPT and SPT, resulting in enhanced signal contributions from the first and second track sense element regions sea (ft) and sea (st) in each sense element SEN. Thus, the detector portion 767 provides substantially similar signals and advantages as the previously described detector portion 667.

Fig. 8 is a plan view illustrating a fourth exemplary embodiment of a detector portion 867 and a compatible scale pattern 180 that can be used in an electronic position encoder, according to principles disclosed herein.

The scale pattern 180 may be similar to or the same as the scale pattern 180 described with reference to fig. 4 and 5. The detector portion 867 is substantially similar to the detector portion 467 described with reference to fig. 4 and 5, and can be understood by analogy, except for the differences outlined below. Elements denoted by like reference numerals in fig. 8, 4, and 5 (e.g., like names or numbers or a numerical "suffix") are like elements and may be understood to operate similarly and provide like benefits and advantages unless otherwise noted below.

Broadly speaking, the main differences between the embodiments of fig. 8 and 4 and 5 relate to certain aspects of the magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC ", as described in more detail below.

The various magnetic field generating coil configurations FGC previously shown and described herein may be characterized as a "single turn" configuration, wherein only one conductive turn or wire loop surrounds the generated magnetic field region GFA. In some embodiments, such turns or loops may be partial loops that do not completely surround the generated magnetic field region GFA, but still provide an operatively generated magnetic field therein. In contrast, the detector portion 867 as shown in fig. 8 includes a "two turn" configuration, as described in more detail below.

It can be appreciated in fig. 8 that the elongated portion epxxx (ft) of the magnetic field generating coil arrangement FGC "is manufactured in the layer of the elongated portion of the detector portion 867, according to the principles outlined above. According to the principles outlined previously, other parts of the magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC ", such as the shielding end portion sesx (ft) shown in fig. 8 with a darker filling line, are manufactured in the shielding end portion layer (shielding conductor layer) of the detector portion 867. The connection between these layers is achieved by means of a feed-through F-THUR according to the principles outlined above. The feedthrough F-THRU is represented by a black filled circle in fig. 8.

As shown in fig. 8, the magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC "includes the following arrangement:

the input connection CP1 is connected to a first side elongated portion EPS1a (FT) which is connected in series to a first second side elongated portion EPS2a (FT) by a shielding end portion sesa (FT) of a shielding end portion arrangement sec (FT) at a first end of the magnetic field generating coil arrangement FGC ";

the first second side elongated portion EPS2a (FT) is connected in series with the second first side elongated portion EPS1b (FT) by the shielding end portion arrangement sesab (FT) of the shielding end portion arrangement sec (FT) at the second end of the magnetic field generating coil arrangement FGC ";

the second first side elongated portion EPS1b (FT) is connected in series to the second side elongated portion EPS2b (FT) by the shielding end portion in a shielding end portion sec (FT) configuration at the first end of the magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC "; and is

The second side elongated portion EPS2b (FT) is connected to the input connection CP2 in the vicinity of the shielding end portion arrangement sec (FT) at the second end of the magnetic field generating coil arrangement FGC ".

It should be appreciated that such a two-turn configuration may become advantageous or desirable in a detector section in accordance with the principles disclosed herein, wherein the magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC "may be significantly shorter along the x-axis direction than those used in previously known detector sections that provide similar performance and accuracy. As previously mentioned, the significantly shorter elongated portion EP allowed according to the principles disclosed and claimed herein inherently allows the magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC "to have a significantly smaller resistance and/or impedance compared to known magnetic field generating configurations. Thus, in some embodiments, additional turns or loops may be added to the magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC "to adjust (increase) the impedance to a desired level for driving resonant oscillations of the coil without exceeding actual or desired limits of resistance and/or impedance of the magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC". In some such embodiments, unexpectedly high signal-to-noise ratios and/or accuracy may be achieved. It should be understood that in some embodiments, it may be desirable to use a "three turn" configuration or more magnetic field generating coils configuration FGC.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating one exemplary embodiment of the components of a measurement system 900 including an electronic position encoder 910. It should be understood that certain numbered components 9XX of fig. 9 may correspond to and/or have similar operation as similarly numbered components 1XX of fig. 1, unless otherwise described below. The electronic position encoder 910 includes a scale 970 and a detector portion 967, which together form a transducer, and a signal processing arrangement 966. In various embodiments, detector portion 967 may include any of the configurations described above with reference to fig. 2-8, or other configurations. Measurement system 900 also includes user interface features such as a display 938 and user-operable switches 934 and 936, and may additionally include a power supply 965. In various embodiments, an external data interface 932 may also be included. All of these elements are coupled to a signal processing arrangement 966 (or signal processing and control circuitry), which may be implemented as a signal processor. The signal processing arrangement 966 may provide drive signals to a magnetic field generating coil arrangement in the detector portion 967 and determine the position of the sensing element of the detector portion 967 relative to the scale 970 based on detector signals input from the detector portion 967, as previously outlined herein.

In various embodiments, the signal processing configuration 966 of fig. 9 (and/or other signal processing configurations shown and described herein) may include one or more processors or components thereof that execute software to perform the functions described herein. Processors include programmable general purpose or special purpose microprocessors, programmable controllers, Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), Programmable Logic Devices (PLDs), and the like, or a combination of such devices. The software may be stored in a memory, such as Random Access Memory (RAM), Read Only Memory (ROM), flash memory, etc., or a combination of these components. The software may also be stored in one or more storage devices, such as an optical-based disk, a flash memory device, or any other type of non-volatile storage medium for storing data. Software may include one or more program modules including routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. In a distributed computing environment, the functionality of the program modules may be combined or distributed across multiple computing systems or devices and accessed through service calls in a wired or wireless configuration.

The disclosure with reference to fig. 10-15 below introduces elements or configurations, hereinafter referred to as signal connection arrangements (or simply SCAs), that may be used in the sense winding configuration (e.g., SWPh1 or SWPh2) of an inductive position encoder to further reduce or eliminate certain position error components due to the effects of stray magnetic fields (stray magnetic fields) associated with feedthroughs that are included in the aforementioned magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC. Briefly, the SCA may be configured to compensate and/or minimize various undesired detector signal components produced by various detector signal feed-through pairs associated with sense winding connections (e.g., DSFT1 and DSFT2) that receive stray flux produced by feedthroughs included in the aforementioned magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC, via a feed-through inductive coupling region FTIArea located between the detector signal feed-through pairs.

In contrast, the signal connection arrangements disclosed in the' 335 patent or used in the sensing winding configuration as described previously herein do not identify or explicitly account for such undesired detector signal components or their potential sources, and therefore do not explicitly describe or identify signal connection arrangement characteristics that compensate for or minimize the respective undesired detector signal components, as disclosed in more detail below. Any similarity between the previously disclosed signal connection arrangements and the signal connection arrangements disclosed and claimed below may be considered unintentional or unintentional.

In some embodiments, an SCA configured according to the principles disclosed below may be used in conjunction with one or more of the teachings disclosed in the' 335 patent and/or previously disclosed with reference to fig. 4-8 to further improve signal-to-noise ratio, accuracy, and/or size in an electronic position encoder. In some embodiments, the use of SCAs disclosed herein may be combined with the teachings disclosed in commonly assigned and co-pending U.S. patent application No.16/863,543, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, to further improve the signal-to-noise ratio, accuracy and/or size of the electronic position encoder. As described in greater detail below, the configurations of SCAs shown and described in detail below are conveniently categorized and referred to as being configured according to a first type of arrangement characteristic (labeled "a") or a second type of arrangement characteristic (labeled "B"). Further, certain configurations of SCAs may be classified as being configured according to deployment characteristics B) and a) of deployment characteristics a).

In the following description of fig. 10-15, for ease of description, a more general name "shield conductor layer" is used below to refer to a conductor layer previously referred to as a shield end layer, since the design and characteristics emphasized in the embodiments have certain differences from those previously disclosed. For similar reasons, a set of shield layer conductor portions is thereby redefined to encompass all of the various conductor portions fabricated in the shield conductor layer of the multi-layer circuit component. In contrast to the previously described approach, the set of shield conductor portions groups together shield conductor portions included in various functional elements, such as magnetic field generating coils, and/or connections to sensing windings, etc., as described in more detail below. In order to link the foregoing description with the following description, it should be understood that at least one such shield layer conductor portion included in the group is similar or identical to the element previously referred to herein and in the incorporated references as "shield end SES". The element may alternatively be described as a shield layer transverse conductor portion spanning at least the minimum y-axis direction spacing between the first track first side and second side elongate portion configurations and included in a conductor path (e.g. including an elongate portion feed-through) connecting the first track first side and second side elongate portion configurations in the first track magnetic field generating coil. More generally, the phrase "lateral conductor portion" refers to any conductor portion that extends in a direction perpendicular to the x-axis direction.

Fig. 10 is an isometric view showing a portion of the detector portion 467 of fig. 5, including a first embodiment of the signal connection arrangements SCA-Ph1 and SCA-Ph2, which may mitigate certain spurious signal errors in accordance with the principles disclosed below. FIG. 10 eliminates or hides some portions of FIG. 5 from the drawings and shows the remaining portions on an expanded scale to better illustrate and describe various SCA features. Specifically, fig. 10 shows only the left-hand portion of fig. 5, and conceals/removes the signal processing arrangement 566 shown in fig. 5 to more clearly illustrate the features shown in its vicinity in the present fig. 10. In general, the detector portion 467 and other features shown in fig. 10 may be understood to be similar or identical to those shown in fig. 5, and their operation may be understood based on the foregoing description. Elements denoted by like reference numerals in fig. 10 and 5 (e.g., like names or numbers or a numerical "suffix"), or elements that are significantly similar in the figures, are similar elements and may be understood to operate similarly unless otherwise indicated below. Unless contradicted by the following description, it should be understood that the various features and principles outlined above with reference to fig. 5 and other previous figures herein are believed to be present and operate with the detector portion 467 shown in fig. 10, regardless of whether such features or concepts or their reference numerals are hidden in fig. 10 to more clearly emphasize the features and characteristics described below. Only certain features of fig. 10 are described in detail below, as this description is intended to highlight certain disclosed and claimed features that have not been explicitly described herein.

Features added to the diagram of fig. 10 or shown in more detail in comparison to fig. 5 include a sense winding configuration comprising a set of respective spatial phase sense windings including a first spatial phase sense winding SWPh1, a second spatial phase sense winding SWPh2 and a third spatial phase sense winding SWPh3, and their associated signal connection arrangements a first embodiment of SCA-Ph1, SCA-Ph2 and SCA-Ph 3. Further, fig. 10 explicitly designates the previously described input connection portions ICP1A and ICP2A as elongated portion feedthroughs EPFT1A and EPFT2A, respectively. Fig. 10 further specifies that the elongated portion feedthroughs EPFT1A and EPFT2A may be collectively referred to as an elongated portion feedthrough subset EPFTSub. Furthermore, fig. 10 shows a stray magnetic field STRAYBF generated by the drive signal current, which is indicated by the arrows in the elongated partial feed-through sub-group EPFTSub.

With respect to the elongated portion feed-through sub-set EPFTSub, it can be considered a sub-set of the complete set of elongated portions EPFTSet, which also comprises a sub-set EPFTSub' of the elongated portion feed-through, which sub-set is located at the distal or right end of the elongated portions EPS1 and EPS2 that are cut off in fig. 10. For example, a complete set of elongate portions EPFTSet is shown in FIGS. 14 and 15. The set of elongated portion feedthroughs EPFTSet and its sub-sets EPFTSub and EPFTSub' can be described as follows. The set of elongate portion feedthroughs EPFTSet includes elongate portion feedthroughs (e.g., EPFT1A and EPFT2A) each extending between an elongate portion layer and a shield conductor layer along a z-axis direction nominally perpendicular to the front surface of the multi-layer circuit element. The set of eptfset comprises a first terminal set of elongated portion feedthroughs, EPFTSub, shown at a first end of the elongated portion EP of the magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC, and a second terminal set of elongated portion feedthroughs, EPFTSub ', at a second end of the elongated portion EP of the magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC, wherein each element of the first and second terminal sets of elongated portion feedthroughs EPFTSub and EPFTSub' is connected to a respective end of the elongated portion EP of the magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC and to a respective element of the shielding layer conductor portion set for conveying a drive signal therebetween. For example, as shown in fig. 10, the elongated portion feedthrough EPFT1A is connected to one end of the elongated portion EPS1 and the shield conductor portion ICP 1B. Similarly, the elongated portion feedthrough EPFT2A is connected to one end of the elongated portion EPS2 and the shield conductor portion ICP 2B.

With respect to the stray magnetic field STRAYBF, as previously described, it is generated by the drive signal current represented by the arrow in the elongated partial feed-through subset eftsub. The stray magnetic field STRAYBF may informally be referred to as the "B field". Typically, when transmitting a drive signal, the elongated-portion feedthrough sub-set EPFTSub generates a corresponding "feedthrough" stray magnetic field STRAIBBF that includes "feedthrough" stray magnetic flux components oriented parallel to the XY plane parallel to the x-axis and the y-axis. For example, the particular structure of the elongated partial-feedthrough subset EPFTSub shown in fig. 10 produces a particular stray magnetic field STRAYBF shown in fig. 10 that has a structure and/or directivity in the XY plane that is approximately represented by qualitatively represented flux components and/or magnetic field lines BFL1, BFL2, BFL 2', BFL3, and BFL 3'.

With respect to the first, second and third spatial phase sensing windings SWPh1, SWPh2 and SWPh3, respectively, their elements and structure have been described above with respect to the sensing element SEN and the conductive receiver loop CRL. As previously described, fig. 2-8 illustrate a single representative set of sense elements SEN (e.g., SEN1-SEN24 in fig. 2-4) that includes respective conductive receiver loops CR1 (e.g., CRL1-CRL24 in fig. 2-3). As previously mentioned, the elements SEN and/or CRL may alternatively be referred to herein as sense loop elements, sense coil elements, or sense winding elements. According to known methods, these elements are connected in series (e.g., by feed-through connections) on each layer of a multilayer circuit element to form a sense winding, with adjacent loop elements having opposite winding polarities. This depicts the sense winding SWPh1, which is explicitly labeled in fig. 10, while it is shown but not labeled in fig. 5. In contrast to previous figures herein, additional substantially similar portions of the sense windings SWPh2 and SWPh3 are also shown and explicitly labeled in fig. 10. Such a sensing winding is understood to be present, but is not explicitly shown in the previous figures. As previously mentioned, in the previous figures, a single sensing element group (i.e. a single sensing winding) is shown in the detector section to avoid visual confusion, wherein it is to be understood that one or more additional sensing element groups (or sensing windings) are not shown (hidden) but are provided. In particular, in such a "hidden" detector portion, the detector portion is understood to be disposed at a different spatial phase position (e.g., providing a quadrature signal or a three-phase signal) than the illustrated set of sensing elements, according to known principles understood by those of ordinary skill in the art. Specifically, the sense winding configuration shown in fig. 10 is a three-phase detector, as understood by one of ordinary skill in the art based on the following description. To clarify and confirm their structure based on the foregoing description, it should be understood that the first, second and third spatial phase sensing windings SWPh1, SWPh2 and SWPh3 each include a plurality of sensing elements SEN comprising respective electrically conductive receiver loops CRL connected in series and fabricated in one or more receiver loop layers of the multilayer circuit element, wherein the electrically conductive receiver loops SEN/CRL are distributed along the x-axis direction, and at least a first track portion of the electrically conductive receiver loops CRL is located above a first track sensing element region SEA nominally aligned with the first pattern track FPT, and the sensing elements SEN/CRL in each of the spatial phase sensing windings SWPh1, SWPh2 and SWPh3 are configured to provide a detector signal or detector signal contribution to at least the first track by adjacent signal modulating elements SME of the scale pattern 180 The local effect provided by the changing magnetic flux responds.

The first embodiment of the respective signal connection arrangements SCA-Ph1, SCA-Ph2 and SCA-Ph3 of the sense winding configuration shown in fig. 10 may be described as follows. The first spatial phase signal connection arrangement SCA-Ph1 includes a pair of detector signal feedthroughs DSFT1 and DSFT2 that each extend along the z-axis direction between the receiver loop layer and the shield conductor layer. In various embodiments, the detector signal feed-through DSFT1 may be connected to a first signal connection node SDS1 (referred to herein before as a detector signal output connection) of a first spatial phase sensing winding SWPh1 in an appropriate receiver loop layer, and may be further connected to a signal processing configuration (e.g., 566) by respective shield layer conductor portions, as shown in fig. 10. As shown in fig. 10, the detector signal feed-through DSFT2 may be connected to the second signal connection node SDS2 of the first spatial phase sensing winding SWPh1 in the appropriate receiver loop layer, and may be further connected to a signal processing configuration (e.g., 566) by respective shield layer conductor portions. According to this description, the pair of detector signal feedthroughs DSFT1 and DSFT2 are thus configured to input the detector signal from the first spatial phase sensing winding SWPh1 to the signal processing configuration (e.g., 566). Similarly, the second phase signal connection arrangement SCA-Ph2 includes a pair of detector signal feedthroughs DSFT1 'and DSFT2', each of which extends along the z-axis direction between the receiver loop layer and the shielding conductor layer. In various embodiments, the detector signal feed-through DSFT1 'may be connected to the first signal connection node SDS 1' of the second spatial phase sensing winding SWPh2 in the appropriate receiver loop layer and may be further connected to a signal processing configuration (e.g., 566) by respective shield layer conductor portions, as shown in fig. 10. The detector signal feed-through DSFT2 'may be connected to a second signal connection node SDS 2' of a second spatial phase sensing winding SWPh2 in an appropriate receiver loop layer and to a signal processing arrangement (e.g., 566) by respective shield layer conductor portions, as shown in fig. 10. According to this description, the pair of detector signal feedthroughs DSFT1 'and DSFT2' are thus configured to input the detector signal from the second spatial phase sensing winding SWPh2 to a signal processing configuration (e.g., 566). Similarly, the third spatial phase signal connection arrangement SCA-Ph3 includes a pair of detector signal feedthroughs DSFT1 "and DSFT 2", each of which extends along the z-axis direction between the receiver loop layer and the shielding conductor layer. In various embodiments, the detector signal feed-through DSFT1 "may be connected to the first signal connection node SDS 1" of the third spatial phase sensing winding SWPh3 in the appropriate receiver loop layer and may be further connected to a signal processing configuration (e.g., 566) by respective shield layer conductor portions, as shown in fig. 10. The detector signal feed-through DSFT2 "may be connected to the second signal connection node SDS 2" of the third spatial phase sensing winding SWPh3 in the appropriate receiver loop layer and to the signal processing arrangement (e.g., 566) by respective shield layer conductor portions, as shown in fig. 10. According to this description, the pair of detector signal feedthroughs DSFT1 "and DSFT 2" are thus configured to input the detector signal from the third spatial phase sensing winding SWPh3 to the signal processing configuration (e.g., 566).

In various embodiments, it may be advantageous for reducing stray signal coupling if the detector signal feedthroughs DSFT of the first, second and third spatial phase signal connection arrangements SCA-Ph1, SCAPh2 and SCAPh3 are located outside the ends of the generated magnetic field region GFA with respect to their position in the x-axis direction. This is particularly convenient and advantageous in position encoder configurations such as those shown in fig. 10-15, in which the sensing element area SEA extends along the x-axis direction over a sensing element area length dimension SEADX that is longer than the elongated portion length dimension EPDX along the x-axis direction, as previously described. However, it should be understood that in other embodiments the first, second and third spatial phase signals connect the detector signal feed-through DSFT where SCA-Ph1 is arranged. SCAPh2 and SCA-Ph3 may be positioned beyond the ends of generated magnetic field region GFA that are longer than sense element region SEA by connecting to the sense windings inside generated magnetic field region GFA using appropriate conductor portions (circuit traces). For example, the type of "alignment conductor portion" described below with reference to fig. 14 and 15 may be suitable in such embodiments.

Some useful configurations are shown in fig. 10. As shown in fig. 10, the detector signal feed-through pair DSFT1/DSFT2 of the first spatial phase signal connection arrangement SCA-Ph1 defines a respective feed-through inductive coupling area plane ftipa that nominally passes through the axis of each feed-through of the pair, and further defines a feed-through inductive coupling area FTIArea located in the plane and about between the pair of feed-throughs. Similarly, the detector signal feed-through pair DSFT1 '/DSFT 2' of the second spatial phase signal connection arrangement SCA-Ph2 defines a respective feed-through inductive coupling area plane ftipa 'that nominally passes through the axis of each feed-through of the pair, and further defines a feed-through inductive coupling area FTIArea' located in the plane and about between the pair of feed-throughs. Similarly, the detector signal feed-through pair DSFT1 "/DSFT 2" of the third spatial phase signal connection arrangement SCA-Ph3 defines a respective feed-through inductive coupling area plane FTIAP "that nominally passes through the axis of each feed-through of the pair, and further defines a feed-through inductive coupling area FTIAP" located in the plane and about between the pair of feed-throughs. For purposes of explanation, in general, fig. 10 illustrates that representative stray flux component BFL2 intersects a central region of a respective inductive-coupling-through region FTIArea ' and forms an angle of incidence θ ' in the XY plane with a respective inductive-coupling-through region plane ftipa '. Similarly, in accordance with conventions used herein, it is understood that flux components substantially similar in magnitude to representative stray flux component BFL2 intersect the central regions of the respective feed-through inductive coupling area surfaces FTIAP and FTIAP "and form respective incident angles θ and θ" (not shown to avoid visual clutter) with the respective feed-through inductive coupling area surfaces FTIAP and FTIAP "in the XY plane. This results in the generation of undesirable detector signal components in the associated detector signal feedthrough pair. For example, for a respective feed-through pair DSFT1/DSFT2, the respective undesired detector signal component USC is, according to known principles:

USC k BFL FTIArea cos (θ) equation 1

For the respective feed-through pair DSFT1 '/DSFT 2', the respective undesired detector signal component USC ' is:

USC ' ═ k × BFL × FTIArea ' (-) cos (θ ') equation 2

And for the respective feed-through pair DSFT1 "/DSFT 2", the respective undesired detector signal component USC "is:

USC ″) k BFL FTIArea ″ (θ ″) equation 3

Where k is the scaling factor and BFL is the magnitude of the applicable (local) stray flux component in the XY plane (e.g., the magnitude of BFL 2).

As previously mentioned, the configurations of SCAs shown and described in FIGS. 10-15 can be conveniently categorized and referred to as being configured according to a first type of arrangement characteristic "A)" or a second type of arrangement characteristic "B)". In the embodiment shown in FIG. 10, the detector signal feed-through pairs DSFT1/DSFT2, DSFT1 '/DSFT 2', and DSFT1 "/DSFT 2" of the first, second, and third spatial phase signal coupling arrangements SCA-Ph1, SCA-Ph2, and SCA-Ph3 are each configured to compensate their respective detector signal components USC, USC ', and USC "resulting from receiving respective first, second, and third amounts of stray feed-through flux (e.g., BFL2) through their respective feed-through inductive coupling regions FTIArea, FTIArea', and FTIArea".

For a detector signal feed-through pair comprising respective spatial phase signal connection arrangements in a set of respective spatial phase sensing windings, a general arrangement characteristic a) is as follows:

A) the detector signal feed-through pairs (e.g., DSFT1/DSFT2, DSFT1 '/DSFT 2', and DSFT1 "/DSFT 2") of the respective spatial phase signal connection arrangements (e.g., SCA-Ph1, SCA-Ph2, and SCA-Ph3) are each configured such that their feed-through inductive coupling area planes (ftipa, ftipa ', and ftipa ") are at an angle of at most 25 degrees relative to each other in the XY plane, and the detector signal feed-through pairs (e.g., DSFT1/DSFT2, DSFT 1'/DSFT 2', and DSFT 1"/DSFT 2 ") of the respective spatial phase signal connection arrangements (e.g., SCA-Ph1, SCA-Ph2, and SCA-Ph3) are close to each other in the XY plane such that their feed-through inductive coupling areas (ftreaa, ftirea', and ftira") receive similar stray flux components (e.g., BFL2, bfial) in the XY plane.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 10, the detector signal feed-through pairs DSFT1/DSFT2, DSFT1 '/DSFT 2', and DSFT1 "/DSFT 2" of the respective spatial phase signal connection arrangements SCA-Ph1, SCA-Ph2, and SCA-Ph3 are all configured to conform to the arrangement characteristic A) described above. In the particular embodiment shown in fig. 10, the detector signal feed-through pairs DSFT1/DSFT2, DSFT1 '/DSFT 2', and DSFT1 "/DSFT 2" of the respective spatial phase signal connection arrangements SCA-Ph1, SCA-Ph2, and SCA-Ph3 are further configured such that their feed-through inductive coupling areas FTIArea, FTIArea ', and FTIArea "are nominally small and identical, and their feed-through inductive coupling area planes FTIAP, FTIAP', and FTIAP" are nominally parallel. This may be considered as the most advantageous or optimal implementation in accordance with the arrangement characteristic a). This implementation results in minimal differences between USC, USC', and USC "according to equations 1,2, and 3. It should be understood, however, that the detailed description is exemplary only, and not limiting.

With respect to the angles between the feed-through inductive coupling area planes FTIAP, FTIAP ', and FTIAP', it should be understood that if the feed-through inductive coupling areas FTIAP, FTIArea ', and FTIAP' receive similar cross-feed-through stray flux components, the differences between the angles θ, θ ', and θ' in equations 1-3 will be the same as the angles between the feed-through inductive coupling area planes FTIAP, FTIArea ', and FTIArea'. For any given size and/or match of the areas FTIArea, FTIArea ', and FTIArea ", it is advantageous if the difference between the angles θ, θ ', and θ" is as small as possible (e.g., as small as 15 degrees, or 10 degrees, or less) in order to make the difference between the undesired detector signal components USC, USC ', and USC "as small as possible. Therefore, in various embodiments, it is advantageous to make the angle between the feed-through inductive coupling area planes FTIAP, FTIAP' and FTIAP "as small as possible. Conversely, for a given allowable difference between undesired detector signal components USC, USC ', and USC ", if the angle between the feed-through inductive coupling area planes FTIAP, FTIAP', and FTIAP" (and the angles between angles θ, θ ', and θ ") is reduced below the 25 degree limit, as indicated in the placement characteristic a) (e.g., as small as 15 degrees, or 10 degrees or less), it may be possible and/or desirable to relax the constraints or tolerances on the size and/or matching of the areas FTIArea, FTIArea', and FTIArea" (e.g., for layout design flexibility of the detector portions or other reasons). However, it should be understood that if the areas FTIArea, FTIArea ', and FTIArea "are relatively small and well-matched (e.g., each of which is minimized and matched to the limits allowed by typical manufacturing techniques and tolerances for the detector portions), the undesired detector signal components USC, USC ', and USC" and/or differences therebetween may be inherently small, and controlling the angle between the feed-through inductive coupling area planes FTIAP, FTIAP ', and FTIAP "to at most 25 degrees (as expressed in the arrangement characteristic a) may provide sufficient or desired accuracy in many applications. That is, controlling the angle between the feed-through inductive coupling area planes FTIAP, FTIAP ', and FTIAP "to be at most 25 degrees limits the difference between the undesired detector signal components USC, USC ', and USC" to be reliably much smaller than their respective values (e.g., half or less of their respective values, depending on the nominal angle of incidence θ (or θ ' or θ "). this is a valuable result for reducing errors.

Regarding the importance of the differences between the feed-through inductive coupling regions FTIArea, FTIArea ', and FTIArea ", as previously described, for a given allowable difference between the undesired detector signal components USC, USC ', and USC", if the angle between the feed-through inductive coupling region planes FTIAP, FTIAP ', and FTIAP "(and the angles between the angles θ, θ ', and θ") is reduced below the 25 degree limit, as indicated in the arrangement characteristic a (e.g., the angle is as small as possible), it is possible and/or desirable to relax the constraints or tolerances on the size and/or matching of the feed-through inductive coupling regions FTIArea, FTIArea ', and FTIArea "(e.g., for layout design flexibility or other reasons in the detector portion). This is especially true, for example, if the feed-through inductive coupling area planes FTIAP, FTIAP', and FTIAP "are nominally parallel to their intersecting feed-through stray flux components. In this particular case, the undesired detector signal components USC, USC ', and USC "ideally go to zero regardless of the size or matching of the feed-through inductive coupling regions FTIArea, FTIArea', and FTIArea". However, while in some embodiments this may not be required due to potential manufacturing variations and/or potential unpredictable stray magnetic field variations, etc., in many embodiments it may be desirable to match feed-through inductive coupling regions such that they differ by at most 20%, or 10%, or less.

The detector signal feed-through pairs (e.g., DSFT1/DSFT2, DSFT1 '/DSFT 2', and DSFT1 "/DSFT 2") for each spatial phase signal connection arrangement (e.g., SCA-Ph1, SCA-Ph2, and SCA-Ph3) are close enough to each other in the XY plane that their feed-through inductive coupling regions (FTIArea, FTIArea ', and FTIArea ") receive similar cross-feed-through stray flux components (e.g., BFL2) in the XY plane, depending on the structure of the stray magnetic field STRAYBF and the actual feed-through proximity of the inductive coupling regions FTIArea, FTIArea', and FTIArea". The adequacy and/or appropriateness of such factors in a particular embodiment can be determined analytically and/or experimentally.

It should be appreciated that although the application of the arrangement characteristic a) is used in conjunction with a three-phase detector portion outlined above with reference to fig. 10, the arrangement characteristic a) is also generally useful for ensuring similar common-mode errors (e.g., additional errors similar to USC, USC', USC "in additional spatial phase windings) in conjunction with detectors that include 4 or more corresponding spatial phase windings. Differential signal processing methods to compensate for or "cancel" common mode errors (e.g., 0,90, 180, 270 degree spatial phase) in 4-phase quadrature detectors are known in the art.

In contrast, however, in sensing winding configurations that include only two spatial phases, such as two-phase quadrature sensing configurations (e.g., 0,90 degree spatial phase), common mode errors are not easily eliminated by signal processing. As described below, in such two-phase inductive winding configuration, it is desirable to use an arrangement characteristic, referred to herein as arrangement characteristic B), to minimize or eliminate individual winding signal error components (e.g., USC and/or USC').

Fig. 11 is an isometric view depicting a detector portion 467A that is substantially similar to the detector portion shown in fig. 10, but that includes only two spatial phases (e.g., 0,90 degrees spatial phase), and includes a second embodiment of the signal connection arrangement SCA-Ph1 and SCA-Ph2, which may mitigate certain spurious signal errors in accordance with the principles disclosed below. Elements denoted by like reference numerals in fig. 11, 10, and 5 (e.g., like names or numbers or a numerical "suffix"), or elements that are significantly similar in the figures, are similar elements and may be understood to operate similarly unless otherwise indicated below. Unless contradicted by the following description, it should be understood that the various features and principles outlined above with reference to fig. 5 and other previous figures herein are believed to be present and operate with detector portion 467A shown in fig. 11, regardless of whether such features or concepts or their reference numerals are hidden in fig. 11 to more clearly emphasize certain features and characteristics described below. Due to the above-described similarities, only some of the explanations and/or differences between fig. 11 and 10 are described in detail below.

The main difference of the detector portion 467A shown in fig. 11, as compared to the detector portion 467 shown in fig. 10, is that the signal connection arrangements SCA-Ph1 and SCA-Ph2 (i.e., their respective detector signal feed-through pairs) have been rotated by a similar amount about the z-axis direction such that their associated feed-through inductive coupling regions planes FTIAP and FTIAP' are each at a relatively small angle relative to the cross-feed-through stray flux component BFL2 in the XY plane.

As previously mentioned, the configurations of SCAs shown and described in fig. 10-15 are conveniently categorized and referred to as being configured according to a first type of arrangement characteristic "a)" and/or a second type of arrangement characteristic "B)". In the embodiment shown in fig. 11, the detector signal feed-through pairs DSFT1/DSFT2 and DSFT1 '/DSFT 2' of the first and second phase signal connection arrangements SCA-Ph1 and SCA-Ph2 are each configured to compensate for and/or minimize or remove their respective detector signal components USC and USC 'resulting from receiving respective first and second amounts of feed-through stray flux (e.g., BFL2) through their respective feed-through inductive coupling regions FTIArea and FTIArea'.

General arrangement characteristics B) for a detector signal feed-through pair of respective spatial phase signal connection arrangements comprised in a set of respective spatial phase sensing windings are as follows:

B) detector signal feed-through pairs (e.g., DSFT1/DSFT2 and DSFT1 '/DSFT 2 ') of respective spatial phase signal connection arrangements (e.g., SCA-Ph1 and SCA-Ph2) are each configured such that their feed-through inductive coupling region planes (FTIAP, FTIAP ') are at most 25 degrees angle in the XY plane relative to feed-through stray flux components that are parallel to the XY plane and pass through a central region (e.g., BFL2) of their feed-through inductive coupling regions.

In the embodiment shown in fig. 11, the detector signal feed-through pairs DSFT1/DSFT2 and DSFT1 '/DSFT 2' of the first phase and second phase signal connection arrangements SCA-Ph1 and SCA-Ph2 are each configured to conform to the arrangement characteristic B). In particular, their respective feed-through inductive coupling region planes (FTIAP, FTIAP') are each rotated with respect to their angles in FIG. 10 such that they are each at an angle of up to 25 degrees in the XY plane with respect to a feed-through stray flux component (e.g., BFL2) that is parallel to the XY plane and passes through the central region(s) of their feed-through inductive coupling regions.

In the particular embodiment shown in fig. 11, the detector signal feed-through pairs DSFT1/DSFT2 and DSFT1 '/DSFT 2' of the first and second phase signal connection arrangements SCA-Ph1 and SCA-Ph2 are further configured such that their respective feed-through inductive coupling areas ftipa and FTIArea ' are nominally small and identical, and their respective feed-through inductive coupling area planes ftipa and FTIAP ' are each nominally parallel and at a small angle (e.g., 10 degrees, or less) in the XY plane relative to an associated feed-through stray flux component (e.g., BFL2) that is parallel to the XY plane and passes through a central region of their feed-through inductive coupling areas FTIArea and FTIArea '. This can be considered as a near ideal implementation in accordance with the arrangement characteristic B). It should be understood, however, that the detailed description is exemplary only, and not limiting.

With respect to the angle between each of the feed-through inductive coupling region planes FTIAP or FTIAP' and the feed-through stray flux component (e.g., BFL2), which is parallel to the XY plane and passes through the central region of the feed-through inductive coupling region of the associated detector signal feed-through pair, certain factors can be understood as follows. The phrase "the central region of the feed-through inductive coupling region through the relevant detector signal feed-through pair" is a useful explanation in practical applications. In the discussion of fig. 10 and 11 above, it is assumed for purposes of explanation that the magnetic field curvature and gradient at the location of the feed-through inductive coupling regions FTIArea and FTIArea' are not large, and thus the operational feed-through stray flux components in the XY plane may be approximated with BFL2, respectively. However, if the magnetic field curvature and gradient are so large that this assumption does not apply, the phrase "central region of the feed-through inductive coupling region of the feed-through pair of relevant detector signal feeds-through" is a useful explanation in this case. With respect to the angle between each feed-through inductive coupling area plane FTIAP or FTIAP 'and the feed-through stray flux component parallel to the XY plane (e.g., BFL2), by analogy with similar discussions above, if feed-through inductive coupling area planes FTIAP and FTIAP' are nominally parallel to their cross-feed-through stray flux component, in this particular case, the undesired detector signal components USC and USC 'ideally go to zero regardless of the size or matching of feed-through inductive coupling areas FTIAP and FTIArea'. Therefore, in some embodiments, it is advantageous if the angle between each feed-through inductive coupling area plane FTIAP or FTIAP 'and the feed-through stray flux component parallel to the XY plane is as small as possible (e.g., as shown in fig. 11) in order to make the undesired detector signal components USC and USC' as small as possible. However, by analogy with similar discussions above, if the regions FTIArea and FTIArea 'are relatively small and well-matched (e.g., each of which is minimized and matched to the limits allowed by typical manufacturing techniques and tolerances for the detector portions), the undesired detector signal components USC and USC' may be inherently small and the angle between each of the feed-through inductive coupling region planes ftiaa or FTIArea 'and the stray flux component parallel to the XY plane (e.g., BFL2) is controlled to be at most 25 degrees (as represented in arrangement characteristic B) at the center region of the feed-through inductive coupling region FTIArea or FTIArea' of the associated detector signal feed-through pair, which may provide sufficient or desired accuracy in many applications. That is, controlling the angle between the plane of the inductive coupling area of feed-through and FTIAP ' and the stray flux component of feed-through parallel to the XY plane (e.g., BFL2) to be at most 25 degrees in the central region of the inductive coupling area of feed-through or FTIArea ' of the associated detector signal feed-through pair, the undesired detector signal components USC and USC ', respectively, may be limited to be much smaller than when the angle is allowed to have a larger value (e.g., due to an unaware significance thereof). In some embodiments, this may be a valuable tool for reducing errors. The relatively small undesired detector signal components USC and USC' provide relatively more accurate position measurements (e.g., according to known two-phase orthogonal signal processing methods).

Regarding the importance of the difference between the feed-through inductive coupling regions ftiaa and FTIArea ', by analogy with the previous discussion, for a given tolerance limit of the undesired detector signal components USC and USC ', if the angle between each of the feed-through inductive coupling region planes ftiaa and FTIAP ' and the feed-through stray flux components parallel to the XY plane is reduced below the 25 degree limit, as represented in the arrangement characteristic B) (e.g., 10 degrees or less), at the central region of the feed-through inductive coupling region FTIArea or FTIArea ' of the associated detector signal feed-through pair, it may be and/or desirable to relax the constraints or tolerances of the size and/or matching of the feed-through inductive coupling regions FTIArea and FTIArea ' (e.g., for layout design flexibility or other reasons in the detector portion). This is especially true, for example, if the angle is approximately zero. As described above, in this particular case, the undesired detector signal components USC and USC 'ideally go to zero regardless of the size or matching of the feed-through inductive coupling regions FTIArea and FTIArea'. However, while in some embodiments this may not be required due to potential manufacturing variations and/or potential unpredictable stray magnetic field variations, etc., in many embodiments it may be desirable to match feed-through inductive coupling regions such that they differ by at most 20%, or 10%, or less.

With respect to whether the detector signal feed-through pairs (e.g., DSFT1/DSFT2 and DSFT1 '/DSFT 2') of the first and second phase signal connection arrangements (e.g., SCA-Ph1 and SCA-Ph2) are each configured such that each feed-through inductive coupling region plane (FTIAP, FTIAP ') is at most 25 degrees in the XY plane relative to feed-through stray flux components parallel to the XY plane (e.g., BFL2), at a central region of the feed-through inductive coupling region FTIArea or FTIArea' of the associated detector signal feed-through pair, depending on the structure in which the stray magnetic field STRAYBF is known and accommodated. In particular embodiments, the relative structure of the stray magnetic field STRAYBF may be determined analytically and/or experimentally.

It should be appreciated that although the application of the arrangement characteristic B) is outlined above in connection with the two-phase detector portion with reference to fig. 11, the arrangement characteristic B) also generally helps to minimize or eliminate the errors outlined above (e.g. similar to the errors USC, USC' in the extra spatial phase windings) in connection with a detector comprising 3 or 4 or more corresponding spatial phase windings. It may be noted that in the embodiment shown in fig. 11, in addition to complying with the arrangement characteristic B), the detector signal feed-through pairs DSFT1/DSFT2 and DSFT1 '/DSFT 2' of the first phase and second phase signal connection arrangements SCA-Ph1 and SCA-Ph2 each comply with the arrangement characteristic a), as understood on the basis of their similarity to the counterparts in fig. 10. Although not required, in addition to conforming to the placement characteristic B), configurations conforming to the placement characteristic a) may be convenient and/or desirable in various two-phase, three-phase, and/or four-phase sensing winding configurations.

Figure 12 is an isometric view showing a detector portion 467B that is substantially similar to detector portion 467A shown in figure 11, but that includes a third embodiment of a signal connection arrangement SCA-Ph1 and SCA-Ph2 that may mitigate certain spurious signal errors in accordance with the principles disclosed below. Elements denoted by like reference numerals in fig. 12, 11, 10, and 5 (e.g., like names or numbers or a numerical "suffix"), or elements that are significantly similar in the figures, are similar elements and may be understood to operate similarly unless otherwise indicated below. Unless contradicted by the following description, it should be understood that the various features and principles outlined above with reference to fig. 5 and other previous figures herein are believed to be present and operate with detector portion 467B shown in fig. 12, regardless of whether such features or concepts or their reference numerals are hidden in fig. 12 to more clearly emphasize certain features and characteristics described below. Due to the above-described similarities, only certain explanations and/or differences between fig. 12 and 11 are described in detail below.

The main difference of the detector portion 467B shown in fig. 12, as compared to the detector portion 467A shown in fig. 11, is that the signal connection arrangement SCA-Ph1 (i.e., its respective detector signal feed-through pair) has been moved to a different position on the sense winding SWPh1 and rotated in that position about the z-axis direction by an amount such that its associated feed-through inductive coupling area plane FTIAP is angled with respect to its local/operational feed-through stray flux component BFL 2' in the XY plane to conform to the arrangement characteristic B). That is, the detector signal feed-through pair DSFT1/DSFT2 of the first phase signal connection arrangement SCA-Ph1 is configured such that its feed-through inductive coupling area plane FTIAP is at an angle of at most 25 degrees in the XY plane relative to a feed-through stray flux component BFL 2', which is parallel to the XY plane and passes through a central area of its feed-through inductive coupling area. Since the detector signal feed-through pairs DSFT1 '/DSFT 2' of the second phase signaling connection arrangement SCA-Ph2 have the same position and rotation as compared to their configuration in fig. 10, it will be appreciated that in the embodiment shown in fig. 11, the detector signal feed-through pairs DSFT1/DSFT2 and DSFT1 '/DSFT 2' of the first and second phase signaling connection arrangements SCA-Ph1 and SCA-Ph2 are each configured to compensate for and/or minimize or remove their respective detector signal components USC and USC ' by using the arrangement characteristic B) as previously described, the detector signal components resulting from receiving respective first and second amounts of feed-through stray flux (e.g., BFL 2' and BFL2, respectively) through their respective feed-through inductive coupling regions FTIArea and FTIArea '.

In contrast to the embodiment shown in fig. 11, the detector signal feed-through pairs DSFT1/DSFT2 and DSFT1 '/DSFT 2' of the first phase and second phase signal connection arrangements SCA-Ph1 and SCA-Ph2 do not comply with the arrangement characteristic a) because they are not close to each other in the XY plane and because their feed-through inductive coupling area planes ftipa and ftipa ' are at an angle of more than 25 degrees relative to each other in the XY plane.

In the particular embodiment shown in fig. 12, the detector signal feed-through pairs DSFT1/DSFT2 and DSFT1 '/DSFT 2' of the first and second phase signal connection arrangements SCA-Ph1 and SCA-Ph2 are further configured such that their feed-through inductive coupling areas FTIAP and FTIArea 'are nominally small and identical, and their feed-through inductive coupling area planes FTIAP and FTIAP' are nominally small (e.g., 10 degrees, or less) in the XY plane relative to feed-through stray flux components (BFL 2 'or BFL2, respectively) that are parallel to the XY plane and pass through their central areas of the inductive coupling areas FTIArea or FTIArea'. This may be considered a near ideal implementation in accordance with the arrangement characteristic B) for the reasons explained above with reference to fig. 11. It should be understood, however, that this particular embodiment, as explained above with reference to fig. 11, is exemplary only, and not limiting.

This has been explained previously with reference to fig. 11 with regard to the angle in the XY plane between each feed-through inductive coupling area plane ftip or ftipa ' and a feed-through stray flux component (e.g., BFL 2' and BFL2, respectively) that is parallel to the XY plane and passes through the central region of the feed-through inductive coupling area ftip or FTIArea ' of its associated detector signal feed-through pair, which need not be discussed in detail herein. In short, similar to the previous explanation, it is advantageous in some embodiments if the angle between the feed-through inductive coupling area plane FTIAP or FTIAP ' and the feed-through stray flux components (BFL 2' and BFL2, respectively) in the XY plane is as small as possible (e.g., as small as 10 degrees or less, as shown in FIG. 12) in order to make the undesired detector signal components USC and USC ' as small as possible. However, similar to the previous discussion, if regions FTIArea and FTIArea 'are relatively small and well-matched, then controlling the angle in the XY plane between each of the feed-through inductive coupling region planes FTIAP and FTIAP' and feed-through stray flux components (BFL 2 'and BFL2, respectively) that are parallel to the XY plane and pass through the central region of the feed-through inductive coupling region FTIArea or FTIArea' of their associated detector signal feed-through pair to at most 25 degrees may provide sufficient or desirable accuracy in many applications.

The importance of the difference between the feed-through inductive coupling regions FTIArea and FTIArea' has been explained above with reference to fig. 11 and need not be discussed in detail here. In short, similar to the previous explanation, for a given tolerance limit of undesired detector signal components USC and USC ', if the angle in the XY plane between each of the feed-through inductive coupling area planes FTIAP and FTIAP' and the feed-through stray flux components (which are parallel to the XY plane and pass through the central region of the feed-through inductive coupling area FTIAP or FTIArea 'of their associated detector signal feed-through pair) is reduced to below the 25 degree limit (e.g., 10 degrees or less) as shown by the arrangement characteristic B, then it may be possible and/or desirable to relax constraints or tolerances on the size and/or matching of the feed-through inductive coupling areas FTIArea and FTIArea' (e.g., layout flexibility in the detector portion or other reasons). This is especially true if, for example, the angle is made approximately zero. However, while in some embodiments this may not be required due to potential manufacturing variations and/or potential unpredictable stray magnetic field variations, etc., in many embodiments it may be desirable to match feed-through inductive coupling regions such that they differ by at most 20%, or 10%, or less.

Figure 13 is an isometric view showing a detector portion 467C that is substantially similar in many respects to detector portion 467A shown in figure 11, but that includes a fourth embodiment of the signal connection arrangement SCA-Ph1 and SCA-Ph2 that may use additional design concepts or principles as compared to figure 11 to mitigate certain spurious signal errors, as described in more detail below. Elements denoted by like reference numerals in fig. 13, 12, 11, 10, and 5 (e.g., like names or numbers or a digital "suffix"), or elements that are significantly similar in the figures, are similar elements and may be understood to operate similarly unless otherwise indicated below. Unless contradicted by the following description, it should be understood that the various features and principles outlined above with reference to fig. 5 and other previous figures herein are believed to be present and operate with the detector portion 467 shown in fig. 13, regardless of whether such features or concepts or their reference numerals are hidden in fig. 13, to more clearly emphasize certain features and characteristics described below. Due to the above-described similarities, only some of the explanations and/or differences between fig. 13 and 11 are described in detail below.

In short, the main difference of the detector portion 467C shown in FIG. 13, as compared to the detector portion 467A shown in FIG. 11, is that the signal connection arrangements SCA-Ph1 and SCA-Ph2 (i.e., their respective detector signal feed-through pairs) have been moved to and rotated in different positions to conform to the arrangement characteristic B). Furthermore, certain "aligned" conductor sections have been added to the signal connection arrangements SCA-Ph1 and SCA-Ph2 to connect their relocated feed-through pairs to their respective associated spatial phase sensing windings SWPh1 and SWPh2, all of which are described in more detail below.

Before describing a specific embodiment of the feedthrough pair arranging SCA-Ph1 and SCA-Ph2 according to the signal connection of arrangement characteristic B), it is useful to discuss some concepts related to the structure of the stray magnetic field STRAYBF. As mentioned before, the arrangement characteristic B) requires that each feed-through inductive coupling area plane (FTIAP, FTIAP') is aligned such that it makes an angle of at most 25 degrees in the XY plane with respect to a feed-through stray flux component that is parallel to the XY plane and passes through the central area of its feed-through inductive coupling area. This in turn depends on knowing the structure of the stray field STRAYBF.

It should be understood, however, that the structure of stray magnetic fields STRAYBF at the actual location of feed-through inductive coupling regions FTIAP and FTIArea 'in feed-through inductive coupling region planes FTIAP and ftiapa' need only be known. The embodiments of the feed-through pairs of signal connection arrangements SCA-Ph1 and SCA-Ph2 shown in fig. 13-14 are based on the concept that the structure of the stray magnetic field STRAYBF can be reliably predicted or inferred at specific locations given the known structure of the elongated partial feed-through group EPFTSet, which comprises subgroups EPFTSub and EPFTSub', as previously described. Thus, the feedthrough pairs of the signal connection arrangements SCA-Ph1 and SCA-Ph2 can be implemented to comply with the arrangement characteristic B) at those particular locations without the need to determine the detailed overall structure and directionality of the stray magnetic field STRAYBF by analysis or experimentation.

In the particular embodiment shown in fig. 13, the first terminal set of elongate portion feedthroughs EPFTSub is located at a first end of the elongate portions EPS1 and EPS2 of the magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC and comprises two elongate portion feedthroughs EPFT1A and EPFT2A connected to the respective first track elongate portions EPS1 and EPS 2. The second terminal set of the elongated portion feed-throughs EPFTSub' is located at the second end of the elongated portions EPS1 and EPS2 of the magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC and comprises two elongated portion feed-throughs (hidden or removed in fig. 13, but shown as elements ECP1A and ECP2A in fig. 5) which are connected to the respective first rail elongated portions EPS1 and EPS 2. As shown in fig. 13, this embodiment of the elongated partial feedthrough set EPFTSet in combination with the drive signal current flowing therein (as shown in fig. 13 and 5) can be reliably predicted to produce a relatively symmetric stray magnetic field STRAYBF. In particular, the stray magnetic field STRAYBF is symmetrical along an XZ mid-plane XZMid (represented by a segment of this plane in fig. 13) which is parallel to the x-axis and z-axis directions and is aligned along the center of the magnetic field region GFA generated by the first trajectory with respect to the y-axis direction, this center being represented by the dashed line MIDrefY in fig. 13 (approximately in the middle between the two elongated portion feedthroughs EPFT1A and EPFT 2A). It can be reliably predicted that along its XZ mid-plane, symmetric stray magnetic field STRAYBF has a straight-line feed-through magnetic flux component BFL1 in the XY-plane, as shown in fig. 13. Thus, in the embodiment shown in fig. 13, the detector signal feed-through pairs DSFT1/DSFT2 and DSFT1 '/DSFT 2' of the first and second phase signal connection arrangements SCA-Ph1 and SCA-Ph2 are each configured such that their feed-through inductive coupling regions FTIArea and FTIArea 'are located in the vicinity of an XZ mid-plane which is parallel to the x-axis and z-axis directions and aligned along the center of the first track-generated magnetic field region GFA with respect to the y-axis direction, and each of their feed-through inductive coupling region planes ftipa and FTIAP' are angled in the XY-plane by at most 10 degrees with respect to the XZ mid-plane, or more advantageously as long as manufacturing tolerances allow. As can be appreciated based on the foregoing description, in various embodiments this ensures that, with respect to the feedthrough magnetic flux components BFL1 that lie in the XZ mid-plane, they comply with the placement characteristic B).

In the particular embodiment shown in fig. 13, the detector signal feed-through pairs DSFT1/DSFT2 and DSFT1 '/DSFT 2' of the first and second phase signal connection arrangements SCA-Ph1 and SCA-Ph2 are each configured such that their feed-through inductive coupling areas FTIArea and FTIArea 'are nominally smaller and the same, and their feed-through inductive coupling area planes ftipa and FTIAP' are nominally parallel to each other. They are also nominally aligned with the XZ mid-plane and, therefore, with the feed-through flux component BFL 1. This may be considered a near ideal implementation consistent with the nature of the arrangement for reasons explained earlier with reference to fig. 11. It should be understood, however, that this particular embodiment is illustrative only and not limiting as explained above with reference to fig. 11 and discussed further below.

As shown in fig. 13, the detector signal feed-through pairs DSFT1/DSFT2 and DSFT1 '/DSFT 2' of the first and second phase signal connection arrangements SCA-Ph1 and SCA-Ph2 are located outside the ends of the sensing elements SEN/CRL of the sensing windings SWPh1 and SWPh2 along the x-axis direction. This requires extending the sense windings SWPh1 and SWPh2 to their positions, as shown in fig. 13. In particular, as described below, it is advantageous to extend the connection nodes of the sense windings SWPh1 and SWPh2 using a pair of aligned conductor portions fabricated in the respective receiver loop layers. As shown in fig. 13, in addition to their feed-through pairs DSFT1/DSFT2 and DSFT1 '/DSFT 2', the first and second phase signal connection arrangements SCA-Ph1 and SCA-Ph2 each include a pair of alignment conductor portions DSACP1/DSACP2 and DSACP1 '/DSACP 2', wherein each alignment conductor portion in a pair is fabricated in a respective receiver loop layer.

In the embodiment shown in fig. 13, of the pair of aligning conductor portions DSACP1/DSACP2, the aligning conductor portion DSACP1 extends from a first portion of the conductive receiver loop CR1 of its associated spatial phase sensing winding SWPh1 to provide a first signal connection node SDS1 at a location where it is connected to the detector signal feed-through DSFT1 associated with its spatial phase sensing winding SWPh 1. The aligning conductor portion DSACP2 extends from a second portion of the same conductive receiver loop CRL of its associated spatial phase sensing winding SWPh1 to provide a second signal connection node SDS2 at a location where it is connected to a detector signal feed-through DSFT2 associated with its spatial phase sensing winding SWPh 1. Similarly, in the pair of aligning conductor portions DSACP1 '/DSACP 2', aligning conductor portion DSACP1 ' extends from a first portion of the conductive receiver loop CRL of the spatial phase sensing winding SWPh2 associated therewith to provide a first signal connection node SDS1 ' at a location where it is connected to the detector signal feed-through DSFT1 ' associated with the spatial phase sensing winding SWPh2 thereof. The aligning conductor portion DSACP2 'extends from a second portion of the same conductive receiver loop CRL of its associated spatial phase sensing winding SWPh 2' to provide a second signal connection node SDS2 'at a location where it is connected to the detector signal feed-through DSFT2' associated with its spatial phase sensing winding SWPh 2. Each pair of aligned conductor portions DSACP1/DSACP2 and/or DSACP1 '/DSACP 2' are configured in their respective receiver loop layers such that at least a majority of their areas are aligned with each other along the z-axis direction, which reduces or prevents significant stray coupling signals that may occur in conductor portions DSACP1/DSACP 2. Ideally, alignment conductor portions DSACP1/DSACP2 are aligned as much as possible throughout their lengths. But this may not be feasible in all implementations due to various circuit layout constraints, etc. It should be understood that alignment conductor sections similar to those outlined above may be used as desired to support desired layout alternatives in conjunction with any of the detector sections disclosed herein.

With respect to the feedthru inductive coupling region planes FTIAP and FTIAP', each is angled up to 10 degrees in the XY plane relative to the XZ midplane, or more advantageously, as long as manufacturing tolerances permit, a 10 degree (or better) limit can be easily achieved using practical manufacturing tolerances, since the position of the XZ midplane is apparent based on the physical characteristics of the detector portion 467C. Furthermore, the 10 degree (or better) limit allows for a certain error range to ensure that the detector signal feed-through pairs DSFT1/DSFT2 and DSFT1 '/DSFT 2' connecting the first phase and second phase signal arrangements SCA-Ph1 and SCA-Ph2 conform to the arrangement characteristic B with respect to the feed-through flux component BFL1 nominally located in the XZ mid-plane (i.e., providing an error margin with respect to the 25 degree limit represented in the arrangement characteristic B). As explained above with reference to fig. 11 and 12, this is sufficient for many applications and need not be discussed in detail here.

With respect to the feed-through inductive coupling region planes FTIAP and FTIAP ', the planes FTIAP and FTIAP' are nominally parallel to each other and are nominally aligned with the XZ mid-plane, and therefore aligned with the feed-through magnetic flux component BFL1, as shown in FIG. 13: briefly, similar to the foregoing explanation, in some embodiments it is advantageous for accuracy if the angle between each of the feed-through inductive coupling area planes FTIAP or FTIAP 'and feed-through stray flux components BFL1 in the XY plane is as small as possible (e.g., as small as 10 degrees or less), and their angle relative to each other is also as small as possible, in order to minimize the undesired detector signal components USC and USC'. However, while the degree of angular control included in this embodiment may be desirable, in some applications more relaxed angular control within the various limitations described above may be used and still provide sufficient accuracy. In short, as explained above with reference to fig. 11 and 12, this is particularly true if the areas FTIArea and FTIArea' are relatively small and well matched (e.g., as shown in fig. 13).

The importance of the difference between the feed-through inductive coupling regions FTIArea and FTIArea' has been explained above with reference to fig. 11 and 12 and need not be discussed in detail here. In short, similar to the foregoing explanation, for a given allowable limit of undesired detector signal components USC and USC ', if the angle between each of feed-through inductive coupling region planes FTIAP and FTIAP ' and feed-through stray flux component BFL1 (which is nominally located in the XZ mid-plane) is reduced below the above-described limit (e.g., 25 degrees or 10 degrees or less), then constraints or tolerances on the dimensions and/or matching of feed-through inductive coupling regions FTIArea and FTIArea ' may be and/or are desired to be relaxed (e.g., for layout design flexibility in the detector portion or other reasons). This is especially true if, for example, the angle is made approximately zero. However, while in some embodiments this may not be required due to potential manufacturing variations and/or potential unpredictable stray magnetic field variations, etc., in many embodiments it may be desirable to match feed-through inductive coupling regions such that they differ by at most 20%, or 10%, or less.

FIG. 14 is an isometric view depicting a detector portion 767A, the detector portion 767A being substantially similar in many respects to the detector portion 767 shown in FIG. 7, but including a fifth embodiment of a signal connection arrangement SCA-Ph1 and SCA-Ph2 that is substantially similar to the signal connection arrangement shown in FIG. 13, which can mitigate or eliminate certain spurious signal errors in accordance with the principles disclosed below. FIG. 14 eliminates or hides some portions of FIG. 7 from the drawings and shows the remaining portions on an expanded scale to better illustrate and describe various SCA characteristics. Elements denoted by like reference numerals in fig. 14 and 13 and fig. 7 (e.g., like names or numbers or a numerical "suffix"), or elements that are significantly similar in the figures, are similar elements and may be understood to operate similarly unless otherwise indicated below. Unless contradicted by the following description, it should be understood that the various features and principles outlined above with reference to FIG. 7 and other previous figures herein are believed to exist and operate with the detector portion 767A shown in FIG. 14 regardless of whether such features or concepts or their reference numerals are hidden in FIG. 14 to more clearly emphasize certain features and characteristics described below. Due to the above-described similarities, only some of the explanations and/or differences between fig. 14 and 13 are described in detail below.

It will be appreciated that the embodiment of the feed-through pair of signal connection arrangements SCA-Ph1 and SCA-Ph2 is similar or identical to the corresponding parts shown in fig. 13. Due to this similarity, it is understood that the feedthrough pair of the signal connection arrangements SCA-Ph1 and SCA-Ph2 shown in fig. 14 is also configured to conform to arrangement characteristic B). Broadly speaking, the feedthrough pair of the signal connection arrangement SCA-Ph1 and SCA-Ph2 shown in fig. 14, and their various aspects, features, variations, and advantages and disadvantages thereof, may be understood based on the discussion of their counterparts with reference to fig. 13, and need not be repeated here. However, it should be understood that the XZ mid-plane shown and described in fig. 14 is different from the XZ mid-plane described with reference to fig. 13, as described in more detail below.

Briefly, detector portion 767A shown in FIG. 14 differs primarily from detector portion 467C shown in FIG. 13 in that detector portion 767A is a "dual-rail" detector portion that includes first and second rails (designated as FTrack and STRrack), as shown. The first and second tracks cooperate to reduce certain errors in the resulting detector signal. The features and operation of the first and second tracks have been described in detail with reference to fig. 7 and need not be described here. For purposes of this discussion, a related aspect of "dual track" detector portion 767A is that it produces a slightly different structure in its symmetric stray magnetic field STRAYBF F as compared to the structure produced by "single track" detector portion 467C shown in FIG. 13, as described below.

In the particular embodiment shown in fig. 14, the first terminal set of elongated portion feedthroughs EPFTSub is located at the first end of a set of elongated portions EP of the magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC and comprises 4 elongated portion feedthroughs connected to the respective first rail elongated portions EPs1(FT) and EPs2(FT) and second rail elongated portions EPs1(ST) and EPs2 (ST). The second terminal set of elongated portion feedthroughs EPFTSub' is located at the second end of the set of elongated portions EP of the magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC and comprises 4 elongated portion feedthroughs connected with the respective first rail elongated portions EPs1(FT) and EPs2(FT) and second rail elongated portions EPs1(ST) and EPs2 (ST). The two adjacent central elongate portion feedthroughs in each of the first and second terminal sets, EPFTSub and EPFTSub', are connected to adjacent first and second track elongate portions EPS2(FT) and EPS1(ST), respectively, as shown in fig. 14 and shown and described in detail with reference to fig. 7. In the embodiment shown in fig. 14, the magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC is configured such that the drive current flows in opposite directions in two adjacent central elongated portion feedthroughs, and the magnetic field polarity is the same in the magnetic field regions generated by the first track and the second track, as explained previously with reference to fig. 7, and as shown by the drive signal current arrows in fig. 14.

Such an embodiment of the elongated partial feed-through group in combination with the drive signal current flowing therein (as shown in fig. 14 and 7) can be reliably predicted to produce a relatively symmetric stray magnetic field STRAYBF having a symmetric structure as qualitatively illustrated in fig. 14. In particular, the stray magnetic field STRAYBF shown in fig. 14 is symmetrical along the XZ mid-plane XZMid (represented by a segment of this plane in fig. 14) which is parallel to the x-axis and z-axis directions and is nominally aligned with respect to the y-axis direction midway between two adjacent central elongated portion feedthroughs or midway between the magnetic field regions GFA generated by the first track and the second track, which is represented by the dashed line MIDrefY in fig. 14. It can be reliably predicted that along this XZ mid-plane, the symmetric stray magnetic field STRAYBF has a straight-line feed-through magnetic flux component BFL1 in the XY-plane, as shown in fig. 14. Thus, in the embodiment shown in fig. 14, the detector signal feed-through pairs DSFT1/DSFT2 and DSFT1 '/DSFT 2' of the first and second phase signal connection arrangements SCA-Ph1 and SCA-Ph2 are each configured such that their feed-through inductive coupling areas FTIArea and FTIArea 'are located in the vicinity of the XZ mid-plane, which is nominally aligned with respect to the y-axis direction midway between two adjacent central elongate portion feeds or midway between the magnetic field areas GFA generated by the first and second tracks, and each of their feed-through inductive coupling area planes FTIAP and FTIAP' is at an angle of at most 10 degrees in the XY-plane with respect to the XZ mid-plane, or, more advantageously, manufacturing tolerances are also allowed. Following the same principles previously described with reference to corresponding parts in fig. 13, it will be appreciated that in various embodiments this ensures that they conform to the placement characteristic B) with respect to the feedthrough magnetic flux component BFL1 lying in the XZ mid-plane as shown in fig. 14).

As previously described, various aspects, features, variations, and advantages and disadvantages of the detector signal feed-through pairs DSFT1/DSFT2 and DSFT1 '/DSFT 2' of the first phase and second phase signal connection arrangements SCA-Ph1 and SCA-Ph2 and the alignment conductor pairs DSACP1/DSACP2 and DSAC1 '/DSACP 2' shown in fig. 14 may be understood based on the discussion of their counterparts with reference to fig. 13 and need not be described in detail herein. In short, it may be noted that in the embodiment shown in fig. 14, the feed-through inductive coupling area planes FTIAP and FTIAP 'are nominally parallel to each other and nominally aligned with the XZ mid-plane (e.g., within 10 degrees, or preferably as good as possible), and the areas FTIAP and FTIArea' are relatively small and well matched (e.g., so that they differ by 20% or less, or preferably as good as possible), for the reasons explained previously with reference to fig. 13.

FIG. 15 is an isometric view showing a detector portion 667A that is substantially similar in many respects to detector portion 667 shown in FIG. 6, but which includes a sixth embodiment of the signal connection arrangement SCA-Ph1 and SCA-Ph2 following a combination of the design principles and concepts previously outlined with reference to FIG. 14 which may mitigate or eliminate certain spurious signal errors in accordance with the principles disclosed below. FIG. 15 eliminates or hides some portions of FIG. 6 from the drawings and shows the remaining portions on an expanded scale to better illustrate and describe various SCA features. Elements denoted by like reference numerals in fig. 15 and 14 and/or 6 (e.g., like names or numbers or number "suffixes"), or elements that are clearly similar in the figures, are similar elements and may be understood to operate similarly, unless otherwise noted below. Unless contradicted by the following description, it should be understood that the various features and principles outlined above with reference to FIG. 6 and other previous figures herein are considered to be present and operative with the detector portion 667A shown in FIG. 15, regardless of whether such features or concepts or their reference numerals are hidden in FIG. 15, to more clearly emphasize certain features and characteristics described below. Due to the above-described similarities, only some of the illustrations and/or differences in the features of fig. 15 compared to the corresponding features in fig. 14 are described in detail below.

Briefly, similar to detector portion 767A shown in FIG. 14, detector portion 667A shown in FIG. 15 is a dual-rail detector portion, but with a different configuration of magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC and a different stray magnetic field STRAYBF. Due to the nature of the different stray magnetic fields STRAYBF, as explained in detail below, the feed-through pair of signal connection arrangements SCA-Ph1 and SCA-Ph2 shown in fig. 15 is advantageously configured to comply with arrangement property B) as described above with reference to fig. 14 and explained in more detail below.

Broadly speaking, the feedthrough pairs DSFT1/DSFT2 and DSFT1 '/DSFT 2' of the signal connection arrangements SCA-Ph1 and SCA-Ph2 shown in FIG. 15 and their various aspects, features, variations, and advantages and disadvantages thereof, can be understood based on the discussion of their counterparts with reference to FIG. 14, and need not be described in detail herein. However, it can be seen that they are rotated 90 degrees relative to their counterparts in fig. 14. The following explains the concepts related to their specific positions and their different angular orientations in the context of the dual-rail detector portion 667A shown in FIG. 15.

As shown, detector portion 667A shown in FIG. 15 is a "dual track" detector portion, comprising first and second tracks (designated "FTrack" and "STRrack"). The first and second tracks cooperate to reduce certain errors in the resulting detector signal. The features and operation of the first and second tracks have been described in detail with reference to fig. 6 and need not be described here. For purposes of this discussion, a relevant aspect of the "dual track" detector portion 667A is the structure of its symmetric stray magnetic field STRAYBF, as described below.

In the particular embodiment shown in fig. 15, the first terminal set of elongated portion feedthroughs EPFTSub is located at the first end of a set of elongated portions EP of the magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC and comprises 4 elongated portion feedthroughs connected with respective first rail elongated portions EPs1(FT) and EPs2(FT) and second rail elongated portions EPs1(ST) and EPs2 (ST). The second terminal set of elongated portion feedthroughs EPFTSub' is located at the second end of the set of elongated portions EP of the magnetic field generating coil configuration FGC and comprises 4 elongated portion feedthroughs connected with the respective first rail elongated portions EPs1(FT) and EPs2(FT) and second rail elongated portions EPs1(ST) and EPs2 (ST). The two adjacent central elongate portion feedthroughs in each of the first and second terminal sets EPFTSub and EPFTSub' are connected to adjacent first and second track elongate portions EPS2(FT) and EPS1(ST), respectively, as shown in fig. 14 and shown and described in detail with reference to fig. 6. In the embodiment shown in fig. 15, in contrast to the embodiment shown in fig. 14, the magnetic-field-generating coil configuration FGC is configured such that the drive current flows in the same direction in two adjacent central elongated portion feedthroughs, and the magnetic-field polarities are opposite to each other in the region of the magnetic fields generated by the first track and the second track, as explained above with reference to fig. 6, and as indicated by the drive-signal current arrows in fig. 15.

Such an embodiment of the elongated partial feedthrough set in combination with the drive signal current flowing therein (as shown in fig. 15 and 6) can be reliably predicted to produce a stray magnetic field STRAYBF having the configuration shown qualitatively in fig. 15. In particular, the stray magnetic field STRAYBF shown in fig. 15 can be reliably predicted to include feed-through magnetic flux components (e.g., BFL1 in fig. 15) that include curvature, but that are locally approximately perpendicular to the XZ mid-plane XZMid shown in fig. 15 (or, by alternative description, are locally aligned with the YZ plane), where they intersect the XZ mid-plane. The XZ mid-plane XZMid shown in fig. 15 is represented by a segment of this plane and will be understood to be parallel to the x-axis and z-axis directions and nominally aligned with respect to the y-axis direction midway between two adjacent central elongated portion feedthroughs or midway between the magnetic field regions GFA generated by the first track and the second track, which is represented by the dashed line MIDrefY in fig. 15.

Thus, in the embodiment shown in fig. 15, the detector signal feed-through pairs DSFT1/DSFT2 and DSFT1 '/DSFT 2' of the first and second phase signal connection arrangements SCA-Ph1 and SCA-Ph2 are each configured such that their feed-through inductive coupling regions FTIArea and FTIArea ' are located in the vicinity of the XZ mid-plane, which is nominally aligned with respect to the y-axis direction midway between two adjacent central elongate portion feeds or midway between the magnetic field regions GFA generated by the first and second tracks, and each of their feed-through inductive coupling region planes is angled in the XY-plane by at most 10 degrees with respect to the YZ-plane perpendicular to the XZ mid-plane, or more advantageously as long as manufacturing tolerances allow. Following the same principles outlined above with reference to the corresponding parts in fig. 11, it will be appreciated that in various embodiments this ensures that they comply with the arrangement characteristic B relating to the feedthrough magnetic flux component BFL1), which is nominally parallel to the YZ plane, which is perpendicular to the XZ mid-plane at the location of the detector signal feedthrough pairs DSFT1/DSFT2 and DSFT1 '/DSFT 2', more specifically at the location of their mid-lines.

As previously described, various aspects, features, variations, and advantages and disadvantages of the detector signal feed-through pairs DSFT1/DSFT2 and DSFT1 '/DSFT 2' of the first phase and second phase signal connection arrangements SCA-Ph1 and SCA-Ph2 and the alignment conductor pairs DSACP1/DSACP2 and DSAC1 '/DSACP 2' shown in fig. 15 may be understood based on the discussion of their counterparts with reference to fig. 14, and need not be described in detail herein. In short, it may be noted that in the embodiment shown in fig. 15, the feed-through inductive coupling area planes FTIAP and FTIAP 'are nominally parallel to the YZ plane and are positioned to intersect the XZ mid-plane (e.g., at their centerlines), and the areas FTIAP and FTIArea' are relatively small and well matched (e.g., so that they differ by 20% or less, or preferably as good as possible) for reasons previously explained with reference to fig. 14. For the reasons explained above, this can be considered as a near-ideal implementation in accordance with the arrangement characteristic B). It should be understood, however, that the detailed description is exemplary only, and not limiting.

It should be appreciated that although the application of the arrangement characteristic B) in conjunction with the two-phase detector portion is outlined above with reference to fig. 12-15, the arrangement characteristic B) also generally helps to minimize or eliminate the above-described errors (e.g., errors similar to USCs, USCs' in the additional spatial phase windings) in conjunction with detectors that include 3 or 4 or more corresponding spatial phase windings. It may be noted that in the embodiments shown in fig. 13-15, in addition to complying with the arrangement characteristic B), the detector signal feed-through pairs DSFT1/DSFT2 and DSFT1 '/DSFT 2' in which the first phase and the second phase signal connect the arrangements SCA-Ph1 and SCA-Ph2 may be configured to comply with the arrangement characteristic a), if desired. Although not required, in addition to complying with deployment characteristic B), configurations complying with deployment characteristic a) may be convenient and/or desirable in various two-phase, three-phase, and/or four-phase inductive winding configuration.

While preferred embodiments of the disclosure have been shown and described, many variations in the arrangements of the features and sequences of operations shown and described will be apparent to those skilled in the art based on this disclosure. Various alternatives may be used to implement the principles disclosed herein. The various embodiments and features described above can be combined to provide further embodiments. All U.S. patents and U.S. patent applications mentioned in this specification are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety. Aspects of the embodiments can be modified, if necessary, to employ concepts of the various patents and applications to provide yet further embodiments. As an example, it should be understood that the various features and principles disclosed herein may be applied to a rotary position encoder, wherein the x-axis direction and the y-axis direction referred to in the description above and in the claims are to be construed as corresponding to a circular measurement axis direction and a radial direction, respectively, when applied to such a rotary position encoder.

These and other changes can be made to the embodiments in light of the above detailed description. In general, in the following claims, the terms used should not be construed to limit the claims to the specific embodiments disclosed in the specification and the claims, but should be construed to include all possible embodiments along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.

Cross Reference to Related Applications

This application is a partial provisional application, filed on 23.3.2020, entitled U.S. patent application No16/826,842 entitled "TRANSMITTER AND RECEIVER CONFIGURATION FOR INDUCTION POSITION ENCODER," which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Claims

1. An electronic position encoder usable for measuring a relative position between two elements along a measurement axis direction coincident with an x-axis direction, the electronic position encoder comprising:

a scale extending along a measurement axis direction and comprising a signal modulating scale pattern comprising at least a first pattern track having a pattern track width dimension along a y-axis direction perpendicular to the x-axis direction, each pattern track comprising a signal modulating element arranged to provide a spatially varying characteristic that varies as a periodic function of position along the x-axis direction;

a detector portion configured to be mounted adjacent to the at least first pattern track and to move in a measurement axis direction relative to the at least first pattern track, the detector portion comprising a multilayer circuit element having a front surface facing the scale during normal operation, comprising:

a magnetic field generating coil arrangement secured to a multilayer circuit element, comprising:

an input section comprising at least two connection sections connecting the magnetic field generating coil arrangement to coil drive signals from the signal processing arrangement;

at least a first track magnetic field generating coil section configured to nominally surround a first track generated magnetic field region nominally aligned with the first pattern track, and generates a first track varying magnetic flux in a region of a magnetic field generated by the first track in response to the coil drive signal, the first track magnetic field generating coil section includes first track first and second side elongated portions, fabricated in one or more elongated partial layers of the multilayer circuit element and extending in an x-axis direction on a first side and a second side of a region of the magnetic field generated by the first track, wherein the first rail first side and second side elongate portions collectively span or define a first rail elongate portion length dimension along the x-axis direction, and the minimum y-axis direction spacing between the first and second side elongated portions of the first track defines a first track generated magnetic field region minimum width dimension; and

a set of elongated partial feedthroughs, each elongated partial feedthrough extending between the elongated partial layer and the shield conductor layer along a z-axis direction nominally orthogonal to the front surface of the multi-layer circuit element, the set of elongated partial feedthroughs including a first terminal set of elongated partial feedthroughs located at a first end of the elongated portion of the magnetic field generating coil configuration and a second terminal set of elongated partial feedthroughs located at a second end of the elongated portion of the magnetic field generating coil configuration, wherein each member of the first terminal set and the second terminal set of elongated partial feedthroughs is connected to a respective end of the elongated portion of the magnetic field generating coil configuration and a respective member of the set of shield conductor portions to convey drive signals therebetween;

a set of shield layer conductor portions, wherein each member shield layer conductor portion is fabricated in a shield conductor layer of the multilayer circuit element, and at least one such shield layer conductor portion is a transverse conductor portion extending along a direction transverse to the x-axis direction, and at least one such shield layer transverse conductor portion spans at least a minimum y-axis direction spacing between the first track first side and second side elongated portion configurations and is included in a conductor path that includes an elongated portion feedthrough and connects the first track first side and second side elongated portion configurations in the first track magnetic field generating coil portion;

an arrangement of conductive shielding regions comprising at least one first track conductive shielding region extending in x-axis and y-axis directions and being fabricated in a first track shielding region layer, the first layer of track shield areas being located between the first layer of track shield conductors and one or more receiver loop layers of the multilayer circuit component relative to their position along the z-axis, wherein the conductive shielding region configuration comprises at least one first track conductive shielding region interposed along the z-axis direction between the receiver loop layer and a shielding layer transverse conductor portion spaced at least across the minimum y-axis direction, wherein the first track conductive shield region is configured to intercept at least a majority of an area of the shield layer transverse conductor portion projected along a z-axis direction toward a z-axis of the receiver loop layer; and

a sensing winding configuration comprising a set of spatial phase sensing windings comprising at least two respective spatial phase sensing windings, each spatial phase sensing winding comprising:

a plurality of sensing elements comprising respective conductive receiver loops connected in series and fabricated in one or more receiver loop layers of the multilayer circuit element, wherein the conductive receiver loops are distributed along an x-axis direction and at least a first track portion of the conductive receiver loops is located over a first track sensing element area nominally aligned with the first pattern track, and the sensing elements in each respective spatial phase sensing winding are configured to provide a respective detector signal or detector signal contribution that is responsive to at least a local effect on the first track varying magnetic flux provided by adjacent signal modulating elements of the scale pattern; and

a respective spatial phase signal connection arrangement comprising a pair of detector signal feedthroughs each extending along the z-axis direction between the receiver loop layer and the shielding conductor layer, wherein one of the pair of detector signal feedthroughs is connected to the first signal connection node of the respective spatial phase sensing winding and to the signal processing arrangement through the respective shielding layer conductor portion, and the other of the pair of detector signal feedthroughs is connected to the second signal connection node of the respective spatial phase sensing winding and to the signal processing arrangement through the respective shielding layer conductor portion, whereby the pair of detector signal feedthroughs is configured to input detector signals from the respective spatial phase sensing winding to the signal processing arrangement; and

a signal processing arrangement operatively connected to the detector portion to provide a coil drive signal and configured to determine a relative position between the detector portion and the scale pattern based on a detector signal input from the detector portion, wherein:

each subset of the elongated partial feedthroughs produces a respective feed-through stray magnetic field when transmitting the drive signal, the feed-through stray magnetic field comprising feed-through stray magnetic flux components oriented parallel to an XY plane parallel to the x-axis and the y-axis;

2. The electronic position encoder of claim 1, wherein the set of spatial phase sensing windings comprises at least three respective spatial phase sensing windings, and their associated detector signal feedthrough pairs are configured according to an arrangement characteristic a).

3. An electronic position encoder according to claim 2, wherein the associated pairs of detector signal feedthroughs are configured such that their feedthru inductive coupling areas differ by at most 20%.

4. An electronic position encoder according to claim 3, wherein the associated pairs of detector signal feedthroughs are configured such that their feedthru inductive coupling region planes are nominally parallel.

5. The electronic position encoder of claim 1, wherein the set of spatial phase sensing windings comprises at least two respective spatial phase sensing windings and their associated detector signal feedthroughs are configured for each according to arrangement characteristic B).

6. An electronic position encoder according to claim 5, wherein the associated pairs of detector signal feedthroughs are each configured such that their plane of the feedthru inductive coupling region makes an angle of at most 10 degrees in the XY plane relative to a feed-through stray flux component that is parallel to the XY plane and passes through a central region of their feedthru inductive coupling region.

7. An electronic position encoder according to claim 6, wherein the associated pairs of detector signal feedthroughs are configured such that their feedthru inductive coupling areas differ by at most 20%.

8. The electronic position encoder of claim 5, wherein:

a first terminal set of elongated portion feedthroughs located at a first end of the elongated portion of the magnetic field generating coil arrangement, and a second terminal set of elongated portion feedthroughs located at a second end of the elongated portion of the magnetic field generating coil arrangement, each consisting of two elongated portion feedthroughs connected to a respective first rail elongated portion; and is

The associated detector signal feedthroughs are configured for each such that:

their feed-through inductive coupling regions are located near the XZ mid-plane, which is parallel to the x-axis and z-axis directions and aligned along the center of the region of the magnetic field generated by the first track with respect to the y-axis direction; and is

Their plane of feed-through inductive coupling areas is at most 10 degrees in the XY plane relative to the XZ mid-plane.

9. An electronic position encoder according to claim 8, wherein the associated pairs of detector signal feedthroughs are each configured such that their feedthru inductive coupling region planes are nominally parallel to each other.

10. An electronic position encoder according to claim 9, wherein the associated pairs of detector signal feedthroughs are each configured such that their feedthru inductive coupling areas differ by at most 20%.

11. The electronic position encoder of claim 5, wherein the set of spatial phase sensing windings consists of two respective spatial phase sensing windings.

12. An electronic position encoder according to claim 5, wherein the associated detector signal feed-through is configured for each further in accordance with the arrangement characteristic A).

13. The electronic position encoder of claim 1, wherein the set of spatial phase sensing windings comprises at least two respective spatial phase sensing windings and their associated detector signal feedthroughs are configured for each according to arrangement characteristic B), and wherein:

the electronic position encoder is of the dual track type comprising first and second pattern tracks, wherein the magnetic field generating coil arrangement comprises a first track magnetic field generating coil portion operatively aligned with the first pattern track and a similar second track magnetic field generating coil portion operatively aligned with the second pattern track;

a first terminal set of elongated portion feedthroughs located at a first end of the elongated portions of the magnetic field generating coil arrangement and a second terminal set of elongated portion feedthroughs located at a second end of the elongated portions of the magnetic field generating coil arrangement each comprising four elongated portion feedthroughs connected to respective first and second track elongated portions, wherein two adjacent central elongated portion feedthroughs in each of the first and second terminal sets are connected to adjacent first and second track elongated portions, respectively;

the magnetic field generating coil is configured such that the drive current flows in opposite directions in two adjacent central elongated portion feedthroughs and the magnetic field polarity is the same in the magnetic field regions generated by the first track and the second track; and is

The associated detector signal feedthroughs are configured for each such that:

their feed-through inductive coupling regions are located in the vicinity of an XZ mid-plane parallel to the x-axis and z-axis directions and nominally aligned with respect to the y-axis direction midway between two adjacent central elongate portion feeds-through or midway between the regions of magnetic field generated by the first track and the second track; and is

Their plane of feed-through inductive coupling area is at most 10 degrees relative to the angle it forms with the XZ mid-plane.

14. An electronic position encoder according to claim 13, wherein the associated pairs of detector signal feedthroughs are each configured such that their feedthru inductive coupling region planes are nominally parallel to each other.

15. An electronic position encoder according to claim 14, wherein the associated detector signal feed-through pairs are each further configured such that their feed-through inductive coupling areas differ by at most 20%.

16. The electronic position encoder of claim 1, wherein the set of spatial phase sensing windings comprises at least two respective spatial phase sensing windings and their associated detector signal feedthroughs are configured for each according to arrangement characteristic B), and wherein:

the magnetic field generating coil is configured such that the drive current flows in the same direction in two adjacent central elongated portion feedthroughs and the magnetic field polarities are opposite to each other in the magnetic field regions generated by the first track and the second track; and is

The associated detector signal feedthroughs are each configured such that:

their feed-through inductive coupling regions are located in the vicinity of an XZ mid-plane parallel to the x-axis and z-axis directions and nominally aligned with respect to the y-axis direction midway between two adjacent central elongate portion feeds-through or nominally aligned midway between the regions of magnetic field generated by the first track and the second track; and is

Their plane of feed-through inductive coupling areas is at most 10 degrees in the XY plane relative to the YZ plane perpendicular to the XZ mid-plane.

17. An electronic position encoder according to claim 16 wherein the associated pairs of detector signal feedthroughs are each configured such that their feedthru inductive coupling region planes are nominally parallel to the YZ plane and their feedthru inductive coupling regions intersect the XZ mid-plane.

18. The electronic position encoder according to claim 17, wherein the associated detector signal feedthroughs are further configured for each such that their feedthru inductive coupling areas differ by at most 20%.

19. The electronic position encoder of claim 1, wherein each respective spatial phase signal connection arrangement further comprises a pair of alignment conductor portions fabricated in a respective receiver loop layer, wherein:

a first one of the pair of alignment conductor portions extends from a first portion of the conductive receiver loop of the spatial phase sensing winding associated therewith to provide a first signal connection node at a location where it connects with a first one of the pair of detector signal feedthroughs associated with the spatial phase sensing winding;

a second one of the pair of alignment conductor portions extends from a second portion of the conductive receiver loop of its associated spatial phase sensing winding to provide a second signal connection node at a location where it connects with a second one of the pair of detector signal feedthroughs associated with its spatial phase sensing winding; and is

The pair of alignment conductor portions are arranged in their respective receiver loop layers such that at least a majority of their areas are aligned with each other along the z-axis direction.

20. The electronic position encoder according to claim 1, wherein the first track sensing element area extends in a first track sensing element area length dimension along the x-axis direction, and the first track sensing element area length dimension along the x-axis direction is longer than the first track elongate section length dimension along the x-axis direction.