Design of a new flexure-based XYZ parallel nanopositioning stage

Abstract

This paper concentrates on the mechanism design of a new compact parallel flexure stage with three DOFs. First of all, a bridge-principle amplifier is proposed by a serial connection of two fundamental bridge amplifiers. Then, an analytical study of amplifiers in terms of two-stage amplifiers is conducted by performing finite-element analysis (FEA) simulations. Later, a PPR flexure joint is demonstrated to reduce the cross-axis error. Owing to a larger amplification ratio and flexures, the two-stage amplifier is then employed to devise an XYZ parallel stage with decoupled motion. Driven by three low-voltage piezoelectric stacks, the XYZ stage provides larger decoupled motions by using the two-stacked amplifiers, which directly connect the actuators and output platform with the PPR joints. The performance of the designed stage is verified by FEA simulation study.