We have developed an extremely small integrated microencoder whose sides are less than 1 mm long. It is 1/100 the size of conventional encoders. This microencoder consists of a laser diode, monolithic photodiodes, and fluorinated polyimide waveguides with total internal reflection mirrors. The instrument can measure the relative displacement between a grating scale and the encoder with a resolution of the order of 0.01 μm; it can also determine the direction in which the scale is moving. By using the two beams that were emitted from the two etched mirrors of the laser diode, by monolithic integration of the waveguide and photodiodes, and by fabrication of a step at the edge of the waveguide, we were able to eliminate conventional bulky optical components such as the beam splitter, the quarter-wavelength plate, bulky mirrors, and bulky photodetectors.

© 1999 Optical Society of America

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Citation lists with outbound citation links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Cited by links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Article level metrics are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription

Related Journal Articles

• Analysis of the sensitivity of optical waveguide chemical sensors for TM modes by the group-index method (JOSAB)
• Bidimensional planar micro-optics for optochemical absorbance sensing (OL)
• Second-order filtering and sensing with partially coupled traveling waves in a single resonator (OL)
• Integrated optical Bragg-grating-based chemical sensor on a curved input edge waveguide structure (OL)
• Monolithically Integrated Optical Displacement Sensor Based on Triangulation and Optical Beam Deflection (AO)

Related Conference Papers

• Thermal Effects vs. Gain in Femtosecond Laser Written Waveguides in Neodymium Doped Fused Silica
• Tunable Slow-Wave Optical Delay-Lines
• Tunable Optical Delay on Silicon Chip with a Double-Ring Resonator
• Polarization devices based on Bragg reflector waveguides
• Experimental Realization of an On-Chip All-Optical Analogue to Electromagnetically Induced Transparency