Measurement setup for characterization of inductive rotary position sensors

Abstract We present a highly accurate measurement setup and related methods for the efficient characterization of inductive rotary position sensors. The test bench is designed to measure analog sine/cosine output signals of the device under test (DUT) under nominal conditions as well as deliberate misalignment, such as offset and tilt tolerances- enabling analysis of DUT performance w.r.t. the angle deviation, the harmonic decomposition, and tolerance sensitivities. The uncertainty of measurements with the proposed test bench setup is quantified with a repeatability study and an effort is made to determine the systematic deviation. By means of laser-guided positioning, the printed circuit board (PCB) of the DUT is automatically positioned relative to the rotary axis (runout ±5 μm) in airgap and radial direction (repeatability 5 μm, total deviation 30 μm). The setup is capable of high-speed measurements at a rotation speed of at least 2000 min−1. The proposed measurement setup is flexible to accommodate a wide range of rotary position sensors and enables fast (less than 3 s per tolerance scenario) and automated characterization of the DUT angle deviation with excellent accuracy better than 10′′ (0.003∘).