Nutfield has developed a novel optical position detector for its line of galvanometers and scanning systems. While optical position detectors have been in use for some time they have typically exhibited compromised linearity characteristics when compared to their capacitive detector equivalents. Nutfield Technology has overcome these limitations and is pleased to offer 99.9 % linearity over +/- 20 optical degrees, and 99.5 % linearity over +/-34 optical degrees.

One benefit of an optical position detector is the low mass of the moving element. This eliminates a resonance mode from the galvanometers’ rotor. Any structural resonance can pose a limit to performance if it occurs within the tunable bandwidth of the system. Reducing the mass of the position sensor element pushes the resonant frequency out of the range of interest allowing higher bandwidth and insuring stability of the servo.

Our optical design has improved thermal stability; significantly reducing temperature based gain and offset drift. This makes temperature compensation unnecessary in most applications. They also have greater immunity from radio frequency interference (RFI) than previous designs.

Nutfield Technology is adapting this technology to its existing line of scanning products as well as new some new models, which will be introduced in 2012. It will also be available in 2 axis and 3 axis scanning heads.  To learn more about our new galvanometer visit our product page.