Self-calibration of precision angle sensor and polygon mirror

The present paper describes a high-precision angle sensor and a new method for calibrating precision angle sensors absolutely without the use of any accurate reference instruments. Two angle sensors with compensating devices which compensate thermal drift of the light source are developed and calibrated by themselves. The repeatability error of the evaluated mean sensitivity was improved to 0.01% by the compensating device. The repeatability of the calibrated linearity error was reduced to 0.025 s (arc). This paper also describes a new differential method that can calibrate simultaneously the dividing errors of a polygon mirror and angular profile of polygonal surfaces by using the developed angle sensors. Calibration of a 24-sided polygon mirror showed the repeatability error of dividing angle and angular profile to be approximately 0.2 s (arc).