Determination of the linear equations of position-sensing detectors for small motion measurement systems

Small motion measurement systems are widely used in industry measurement fields to measure small positional/angular motions. These systems usually consist of two parts: a measuring assembly and a reference assembly. The position-sensing detectors (PSDs) are embedded in either measuring assembly or reference assembly to sense the variations of laser light incidence points when there are any small positional/angular motions. To use these systems, it is necessary to determine the linear equations of PSD readings, which relate the six-degrees-of-freedom small positional/angular motions and PSD readings. The purpose of this paper is to derive these equations based on the paraxial raytracing method. Two measurement systems are used as illustrative examples to validate the proposed methodology. The methodology of this study will be useful for system design of PSD-based measurement systems and their applications.