The problem of designing an unknown input observer for linear systems and its application to fault detection is widely studied in the literature. For nonlinear systems, only subclasses of nonlinear systems and sufficient conditions have been stated. In this paper an unknown input observer design for state affine systems is considered. Based on the geometric approach, a necessary and sufficient condition is given for the existence of an unknown input observer. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.