IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 38, NO.
2, APRIL 1989
New Type Linear Variable Differential Transformer
Position Transducer
Y. KANO, S . HASEBE, C . HUANG,
Abstract-In this paper, we describe two kinds of new position trans-
ducers which can be attached to linear motors for one- or two-dimen-
sional precise positioning. These position transducers give the position
information by the principle of linear variable differential transformer
(LVDT), but with flat type structures.
I. INTRODUCTION
P OSITION detection plays an important role in many
cases for the motion of linear dc motors (LDMs).
Many kinds of position detecting devices have been in-
vented in various ways to realize linear motor positioning.
In recent years, with the improvement of technology,
more precise multidimensional quick response position
detection is required. For example, for the accurate mo-
tion of a microscope X-Y stage driven by LDM or for the
measurement of an object size with LDM driven instru-
ment, the precise position control of motors is very im-
portant. To meet the requirements mentioned above, two
kinds of position transducers, one and two dimensional,
have been developed according to the principle of linear
variable differential transformer (LVDT) . These trans-
ducers are different from the usual cylindrical shaped
LVDT transducer [ l ] . The new type of position trans-
ducers are flat and all the coils in them are coreless. These
simple structures allow the coil sizes for one- or two-di-
mensional motors to be designed freely.
11. DESIGN
A . One-Dimensional LVDT Position Transducer
To help illustrate position detection using the new po-
sition transducer, the structure of a LDM for one-dimen-
sional drive in short stroke is shown in Fig. 1. The typical
model of a moving-coil type LDM consists of only two
permanent magnets (the stator) and a driving coil (the
mover). When there is dc driving current, the coil is driven
to move by electromagnetic force without position detec-
tion. In such a LDM model, two coils (they may be called
the position detecting coil) are wound around the perma-
nent magnets and connected in converse pole series. The
association of the three coils in the LDM will form a
LVDT with the driving coil as the primary winding. Be-
Manuscript received June IO, 1988.
Y. Kano, S. Hasebe, and C. Huang are with the Tokyo University of
Agriculture and Technology, Tokyo, Japan.
T. Yamada is with Kogyosha Company, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan.
IEEE Log Number 8826188.
0018-9456/89/0400-0407$01.OO O 1989 IEEE
407
AND T. YAMADA
DRIVING COIL
POSITION DETECTING COIL ( EXCITING COIL
Fig. I . Structure of one-dimensional LDM with the new type LVDT
position transducer.
cause the permeability of permanent magnets almost
equals that of air, the two position detecting coils (the
secondary winding of LVDT) may also be considered as
the coreless coils. When an ac exciting current is input to
the driving coil, induced voltages can be obtained from
the two detecting coils separately, and the differential
voltage between them taken to be the position signal. This
output signal becomes zero just at the center coil position
as shown in Fig. 2, where it is defined as the origin of the
motor displacement. If the driving coil moves to the right,
the position signal will be observed in-phase to exciting
voltage and the amplitude of the ac waveform almost
changes linearly according to the mover displacement in
a certain range. In the same way, the mover displacement
to the left of origin can be detected by the amplitude of
the antiphase position signal [2].
B. Two-Dimensional LVDT Position Transducer
A new type two-dimensional position transducer has
also been developed and it can be constructed in the X-Y
moving-magnet type LDM-consider the motor in Fig. 3.
To detect mover displacements in two directions indepen-
dently, X or Y exciting currents are input to the corre-
sponding driving coils of the motor at separate times. It
means that, for example, to detect the X displacement, ac
exciting current is only applied to the X driving coil. At
this time, from the four position detecting coils (no. 1 ,
no. 2, no. 3, and no. 4 ) , the voltages induced by the X
exciting current are detected, and the X position signal is
the sum of the differential voltages of V4-V1 and V3-V2.
On the other hand, through the Y exciting current, the Y
position signal is obtained by the sum of Vl-V2 and V4-
V3. The displacement origins of the mover in both X and
Y directions are defined as in Fig. 4 , similar to the one-
dimensional position detection. The in-phase or antiphase
408 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION A N D MEASUREMENT, VOL. 38, NO. 2. APRIL 1989

POSITION DETECTING COIL DRIVING COIL TANGENT L I N E AT

i---'--j I
I
U
DISPLACEMENT -20 -1 0 0 10 20

(mm1 DISPLACEMENT (nun)

Fig. 2. Model of the new type one-dimensional LVDT position trans- Fig. 5 . Simulation about the one-dimensional LVDT position transducer
ducer.

I I

X DRIVING COIL I TANGENT L I N E AT ORIGIN

( X EXCITING C O I L ) \ I I I /
Y DRIVING COIL
(Y EXCITING COIL) , I
A. /A //I

POSITION D
COIL

Fig. 3 Structure of two-dimensional LDM with the new type LVDT -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8

position transducer
X DISPLA(3E"T (mm)

Fig. 6 . Simulation about the two-dimensional LVDT position transducer.

Y DRIVING COIL
( Y EXCITING C O I L )
C E E Z E G % L
, tle current in them. In other words, the mutual effects

x among the detecting coils may be ignored. If the ac ex-

citing current is kept at a certain frequency and amplitude,
the induced voltages in the detecting coils are propor-
tional to their mutual inductances with the exciting coil
which depends on the mover displacement, and by Neu-
mann's formula, these useful mutual inductances in the
ideal model can be calculated. The result of simulation is
shown in Fig. 5. In a certain applied range, the position
signal change is linear.

-
X DISPLACEMENT
(mm)
Fig. 4. Model of the new type two-dimensional LVDT position trans-
ducer.
position signal shows that the mover displacement is pos-
itive or negative 131.
111. SIMULATION
An ideal model of the one-dimensional LVDT position
transducer shown in Fig. 2 has been made by considering
the current in every coil to be concentrated in the center
of the coil section. As all position detecting coils are con-
nected to high impedance measuring circuits, there is lit-
The ideal model for the two-dimensional position trans-
ducer of Fig. 4 has also been made. For the multidimen-
sional position transducer, both the linearity and the in-
dependence for each direction are very important.
Simulation shows that the independence of this two-di-
mensional detector is fine. For example, a definite Y dis-
placement and X dependence is shown in Fig. 6. Only the
X position signal Vx changes while the Y position signal
Vy is almost constant. The linearity of position detection
is also good. The results of these simulations show that
the two-dimensional position transducer may be applied
to precise positioning of two-dimensional linear motors
within an appropriate area.
IV. SIGNALCONDITIONING CIRCUIT
Just like the usual type LVDT transducer, several sig-
nal conditioning circuits are required. First, a stable
KANO CI al.: POSITION TRANSDUCER 409

I
b I
l Z o EXCITING VOLTAGE: SVP-p
EXCITING FREQUENCY: 2OkHz
1: Y=O.Zm
2: Y = 1 . 7 m

SYNCHRONOUS
DEMODULATOR

I SECONDARY WINDING I
,.
LVDT

-4 -2 0 2 4
CONSTANT EXCITING
VOLTAGE X DISPLACEMENT (mm)
Fig. 7. Signal conditioning circuit for the one-dimensional LVDT position Fig. 9. Position detecting characteristic of the two-dimensional LVDT
transducer. transducer.

The experimental result of the two-dimensional posi-

.-,EXCITING FREQUENCY: 5kHz
tion transducer is shown in Fig. 9. At certain values of Y
e: 60 , , 0 : EXPERIMENTAL VALUg
I /
, displacement ( Y = 0.2 mm and Y = 1.7 mm), the cor-
responding X position signal (Vxl, V x 2 ) changed by X
displacement is almost in the same line, and the Y position
signals ( Vyl , Vy2) are almost constant. In the applied area
of the two-dimensional linear motor ( X : -4 to +4 mm,
Y: -4 to +4 mm), the errors caused by interdependence
in X or Y directions are only about 0.5 percent. The linear
standard deviation in each direction is about 0.57 percent.

-20 -1 0 0 10
DISPLACEMENT ( m )
Fig. 8. Position detecting characteristic of the one-dimensional LVDT
transducer.
source of constant frequency exciting voltage must be ap-
plied to the primary winding. Next, synchronous demod-
ulators are needed to extract both phase and amplitude
information from the LVDT secondary output signal. As
an example, the signal conditioning circuit used for one-
dimensional position transducers is shown in Fig. 7. The
system can be used in a frequency range from several
hundred hertz to about 20 kHz.
v . RESULTOF EXPERIMENT
The experimental position detecting characteristic of the
one-dimensional position transducer is satisfactory as
shown in Fig. 8. By this figure, the experimental data are
in agreement with the simulation, and the linear standard
deviation in the LDM stroke range ( - 15 to 15 mm) is
only about 2.2 percent. As the new type LVDT position
transducer is composed only of several coreless coils, it
is more sensitive than the usual type LVDT near the ori-
gin of the mover displacement with little residual detect-
ing voltage.
20
VI. CONCLUSION
Both one- and two-dimensional position transducers
have a linear detection characteristic in a certain applied
range. If it is necessary, the linearity can be improved
more by changing the sizes of the coils. The residual error
of detecting voltage at the origin of displacement is al-
most eliminated through synchronous demodulator. For
multidimensional positioning, the problem of interde-
pendence may be solved to a certain extent by precise
manufacture of the transducer. These position transducers
can be attached to the LDM as an integral part of it or as
an independent sensor. Considering the simple structure
and low price, these new type position transducers are
expected to be applied widely for one- or two-dimensional
precise positioning.
REFERENCES
+ [l] S . Kataoka et al., Sensor Handbook. Baihukan, 1986, pp. 419-420,
480.
[2] Y. Kano, S. Hasebe, S. Miwa, C . Huang, and T. Yamada, Linear
dc motor with linear moving spring mechanism and position detector,
in Reference Book of Magnetic Research Group. IEEJ, 1987.
[ 3 ] Y. Kano, S. Hasebe, C. Huang, and T. Yamada, X-Y stage driven
by linear dc motor with position detector, in Reference Book of Mag-
netic Research Group. IEEJ, 1987.