Nanopositioning Z-stage has piezoelectrics/servos

A fully-integrated hybrid Z-nanopositioning system employing piezoelectric and DC-motor drives gives unlimited resolution and very fast response with long travel ranges and high holding forces.
PI (Physik Instrumente), a leading manufacturer of nanopositioning and precision motion-control equipment for nanotechnology, photonics, semiconductor and life science applications, introduces the world's first fully-integrated hybrid Z-nanopositioning system employing piezoelectric and DC-motor drives - the M-714 precision Z-stage / C-702 Hybrid Controller combine the well-known piezo drive advantages of unlimited resolution and very fast response with the long travel ranges and high holding forces of a servo-motor / ballscrew arrangement. Typical applications include metrology, surface inspection, microscopy, laser technology, and interferometry. Features and advantages include the following.

* 2 nanometer linear encoder resolution.

* Active compensation of stick/slip during startup and settling.

* Active backlash compensation.

* Excellent velocity control.

* Millisecond settling to nanometer accuracy.

* Reliable execution of nanometer level increments.

* 7mm (1/4in) vertical travel range.

* High holding forces with minimum power consumption.

* 10kg (22 lb) vertical load capacity.

* No counterbalance mechanism required.

* Hybrid controller technology is key to success - the highly specialized C-702 Hybrid Controller reads the stage position from an integrated, 2nm precison linear encoder and continuously actuates both the piezoelectric and servo motor drives in a way to provide the best possible overall performance.

Due to their instantaneous, sub-millisecond response, the integrated piezo actuators provide active stick/slip compensation during startup and settling.

They also improve velocity control and positioning performance when nanometer level steps need to be executed.

* Novel high-bandwidth encoder interface, realtime operating system - the C-702 Hybrid controller is equipped with a novel high-speed encoder interface and can handle encoder count rates of 100 million pulses/s.

Thanks to its real-time operating system, the intricacies of the hybrid drive are completely transparent to the user.

Interface to the host computer is via TCP/IP or RS-232; this interface makes it possible to operate and monitor the system over any TCP/IP-compatible network (intranet/internet).

A 100mm translation stage and a 100mm hybrid translation stage are also available.