precision positioning

actuators

IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering

This paper presents the design of a new compact one-degree-of-freedom (1-DOF) compliant stage driven by a piezoelectric actuator (PEA) for micro/nanopositioning in the vertical direction. An orthogonal compound bridge-type amplifier is introduced to amplify the displacement of the PEA. It significantly reduces the height of the stage and leads to a compact design. By analytical modeling of the mechanism, the design variables are determined, which are then optimized via the multiobjective genetic algorithm based on the finite-element analysis. Simulation results show that the 1-DOF stage is able to provide the maximum displacement of    $181.18~\mu \text{m}$    in theory, which is more than    $12\times $    the input displacement of PEA. Payload test results indicate that the stage can support a maximum load of about 80 N. Comparison study reveals that the presented vertical positioning stage offers a more compact structure than existing ones. A prototype is fabricated for experimental studies, and the deviation between the experimental and simulation results is discussed in detail. Moreover, closed-loop performance test exhibits a resolution of 10 nm for the developed vertical positioning stage.  Note to Practitioners —The motivation of this paper is to devise a compact flexure-based stage, which can be mounted on the top of an XY stage for constructing a hybrid type of XYZ stage dedicated to micro/nanopositioning applications. Such a design scheme provides a more flexible solution than serial- and parallel-kinematic designs. In order to fulfill the design requirement and to improve the compactness and output directionality of the stage, a series of design processes is conducted. The design parameters are optimized and the optimal design leads to the stage dimension of 58 mm    $\times20$    mm    $\times15.5$    mm (length    $\times $    width    $\times $    height), which offers a motion range of    $97.32~\mu \text{m}$    as verified by the experimental study. In consideration of the motion range and physic...

Design, Fabrication, and Testing of a New Compact Piezo-Driven Flexure Stage for Vertical Micro/Nanopositioning