SCANPEDIA

Glossary

SCANpedia - welcome to the SCANLAB GmbH encyclopedia.

Here you'll find explanations and definitions of key technical terms from the fields of optics, scanner technology, laser technology and laser processing.

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P

Position Resolution

Position resolution is a measure of how precisely – i.e. with how much "digital resolution" (number of binary places) – a scan system can be effectively controlled. The specified bit value applies to the full angle range.

Fully analog systems can be controlled with theoretically infinite resolution. The resolution of digital scan systems is limited by the digitalization process. This limitation can originate from each digital-to-analog or analog-to-digital conversion.

The specified position resolution (in bits) applies to the full angle range. For many scan systems, it's identical to the number of bits used to represent the set value (e.g. 16 bits for a system with XY2-100 interface). The angular resolution is obtained from the specified position resolution by dividing the full deflection angle range by the position resolution's control value range.

SCANLAB Resolution

High resolution is particularly needed for surface-filling processes such as in bitmap applications. Resolutions higher than 16 bits can only be achieved with the SL2-100 protocol.