XY Parallel Compliant Stage with Compact Configuration

Abstract

This paper presents a piezo-driven compliant stage for nano positioning with two degree-of-freedom parallel linear motions. Nano positioning is one of the most important factors in completion of nanotechnologies. It can be accomplished by flexure-based compliant stages driven by piezo-actuators. For compact configuration, the compliant stage is stacked by two-layered compliant mechanisms. The upper layer contains a motion guide mechanism, and the lower layer two displacement amplification mechanisms. The motion guide mechanism consists of four prismatic-prismatic parallel compliant joint chains for two translational motion guides. The displacement amplification mechanism is adopted by a flexure-based flextensional amplification mechanism driven by a stack-type piezo actuator. Due to the parallel compliant joint chains, the stage has the same dynamics in the x and y axes. In this study, through design and analysis, the mechanisms were machined via wire electro-discharge machining and are were then integrated with two stack-type piezoelectric elements for actuation, and two capacitive sensors for ultra-precision displacement measurement. Finally, experiments were carried out to demonstrate the performance of the compliant stage.