A Parametric Study of Mechanical Cross-Coupling in Parallel-Kinematics Piezo-Flexural Nano-Positioning Systems

Piezo-electric nano-positioning stages are being widely used in applications in which precision and accuracy in the order of nano, and high scanning speeds are paramount. This paper presents a Finite Element Analysis (FEA) of the parallel piezo-flexural nano-positioning (PPNP) stages to investigate motion interference between their different axes. Cross-coupling is one of the significant contributors to undesirable runouts in the precision positioning of PPNP actuators. Using ABAQUS/CAE 2018 software, a 3D model of a PPNP stage was developed. The model consists of a central elastic body connected to a fixed frame through four flexural hinges. A cylindrical stack of multiple piezoelectric disks is placed between the moving central body and the fixed frame. Extensive simulations were carried out for three different friction coefficients in the piezoelectric disks’ contact surfaces, different frame materials, and different geometrical configurations of the stage and the hinges. As a result, it was observed that the primary root cause of the mechanical cross-coupling effect could be realized in the combination of the slip and rotation of the piezoelectric disks due to their frictional behavior with the stage moving in the tangential direction, concurrent with changes in the geometry of the stage.

Modeling and experiments of a nano-positioning and high frequency scanning piezoelectric platform based on function module actuator

A piezoelectric platform using function module actuator is presented to achieve nano-positioning and high frequency scanning in large working range. A function module actuator is designed to produce a pair of orthogonal bending deformations and a longitudinal deformation through partition exciting. The bending deformations are used to actuate the planar motion,while the longitudinal deformation is utilized to dynamically adjust the driving force and broaden the scanning frequency. The dynamic model of the platform system is developed. The open-loop performances of a prototype are first tested: a scan frequency of 308 Hz in a scanning range of 3.368 μm×3.396 μm is measured in direct actuation mode,and the displacement resolution is measured to be 16 nm;maximum speed is measured to be 3.38 mm s^-1 in the inertial actuation mode. Furthermore,the closedloop experiments are carried out and a switching strategy is proposed to obtain the switching of the inertial and direct actuation modes automatically;the platform achieves the scanning with frequency of 300 Hz at the set position.

MEASUREMENT OF 2-DIMENSIONAL DISPLACEMENT USING 2-D ZERO-REFERENCE MARKS

Several 2-D displacement sensing methods are reviewed. As to the crossdiffraction grating, there is no absolute zero-reference. In regards to the optical fiber method,the output signal is affected greatly by the quality of the reflecting surface and it is hard to gethigh resolution. Considering the concentric-circle gratings, the displacement can only be gainedwith complicated calculating of the experiment data. Compared with the advantages and limitations ofthe methods above, a novel 2-D zero-reference mark is especially proposed and demonstrated. Thiskind of mark has an absolute zero-reference when used in pair, and the experimental result is simpleto dispose. By superimposing a pair of specially coded 2-D marks, the correct alignment position ofthe two marks can be detected by the maximum output of the sharp intensity peak. And each slope ofthe peak is of good linearity which can be used to achieve high resolution in positioning andalignment in two dimensions. Design and fabrication of such 2-D zero-reference marks are introducedin detail. The experiment results are agreed with the theoretical ones.