The Rise of High-Resolution Magnetic Encoders: A Short History

Rotary encoders provide position feedback in all sorts of systems. The demand for encoders continues to grow as customers demand higher efficiency and smarter motion control.

In the beginning
In the old days, encoders were baseball-sized metal cans containing a glass disk with opaque metal lines. Other parts included a set of bearings and a shaft used to mount the glass disk. One side of the disk had an incandescent or LED light source and lens assembly; the other reverse had a metal grating mounted in front of two or three light sensors.  More...