Accuracy of position detection using a position-sensitive detector

Author

Schaefer, Peter ; Williams, Ronald D. ; Davis, G. Kirk ; Ross, Robert A.

Author_Institution

Avtec Syst. Inc., Fairfax, VA, USA

Volume

47

Issue

4

fYear

1998

fDate

8/1/1998 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

914

Lastpage

919

Abstract

Position-sensitive detectors (PSD) provide four current outputs that are proportional to the two-dimensional center of mass of a light spot impinging on the face of the detector. This characteristic permits the PSD to be used for sensing the position of a light source. The application motivating the work reported here involved the tracking of a light source located on a surface with approximate dimensions 122 cm wide by 91 cm high located approximately 2 m from the detector. The diameter of the light source was a few millimeters. The work described here demonstrates the feasibility of using a PSD to track the position of a light source with accuracy better than 1 mm from this distance

Keywords

optical sensors; p-i-n photodiodes; photodetectors; position measurement; 1 mm; 122 cm; 2 m; 91 cm; lateral photoeffect dual-axis sensor; light source tracking; light spot; position detection accuracy; position-sensitive detector; semiconductor optical sensor; two-dimensional center of mass; Face detection; Frequency; Kirk field collapse effect; Light sources; Object detection; Optical detectors; Optical sensors; Position measurement; Position sensitive particle detectors; Signal detection;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Instrumentation and Measurement, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9456

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/19.744642

Filename

744642