Encoders shrink to surface mounting

Agilent Technologies has developed the industry's smallest surface-mount reflective optical encoders for a wide range of consumer, office and industrial automation applications.

Agilent Technologies has developed the industry's smallest surface-mount reflective optical encoders for a wide range of consumer, office and industrial automation applications.

The Agilent AEDR-8300 series encoders are 45% smaller than the industry's current smallest encoder.

Their miniature size and surface-mount packaging make it extremely easy for design engineers to incorporate these devices in tight spaces, such as the inside of a motor case in a copier or directly on a printed-circuit board for storage devices, digital cameras, printers, as well as automotive applications, including seat adjust and mirror control.

The encoders offer a wide operating temperature range (-20 to +85C), enabling them to work in high-temperature environments.

The Agilent AEDR-8300 series reflective encoders consist of an LED light source, a special photodetector IC with integrated electronics, and integrated optics.

They can be used with a reflective code wheel to sense rotary position and velocity, or with a linear code strip to sense linear position and velocity.

The devices provide either one or two-channel TTL-compatible digital outputs in quadrature, which provides both count and direction information.

They are available with encoding resolutions of 180, 150, 75 and 36 line/in.

The encoders use identical pinouts for 75 and 150 line/in, providing backward compatibility.

They are insensitive to axial play and maintain performance and accuracy over a wide variation in the gap between sensor and code wheel or strip.

Agilent's reflective encoders are supplied in a solder-bump (similar to a ball-grid-array) SO-6 lead-free package with overall dimensions of 5.12 x 3.96 x 1.63mm, compared with the Agilent HEDR-8000 series in the SO-8 package, with total dimensions of 5.08 x 6.2 x 3.18mm (including leads).

This reduces the overall area required on a printed circuit board by 30%, which reduces system cost.

The surface-mount IC configuration is specifically designed for automated assembly, and the solder-bump design provides for self-alignment on PC board solder pads.

The encoders operate at rated performance for frequencies up to 30kHz.

The Agilent AEDR-8300 reflective optical encoders are available now through Agilent's direct sales channel and worldwide distribution partners.

Back to top