ABSOLUTE ENCODER USING MULTIPHASE ANALOG SIGNALS

An absolute decoder comprises a measuring scale (1) with at least one track and a plurality of analog sensors (47, 48) for such track. The output of each sensor is modulated by the track to generate a plurality of cyclic nonsinusoidal multiphase analog signals from the sensors indicative of the relative position of the sensors and the measuring scale. The multiphase signals are converted to digital form (50. 51) and conditionally added or subtracted (58) to obtain an output that increases linearly in proportion to the position of the sensors relative to the measuring scale.