Piezo Drives for Microscopy

Abstract

It is difficult to imagine microscopy in biotechnology or clinical and pharmaceutical research without automation technology. Many applications in industrial surface inspection also require appropriate solutions for sample handling and sample positioning because of the large amount of data and the desired throughput. Conventional stepper motors achieve the required speeds and have resolutions in the micron range, making them adequate as drives for sample scanning in the XY-direction. Motion along the optical axis, on the other hand, requires much higher resolutions and, at the same time, long settling times must be avoided. Piezo drives are thus able to offer far better fine adjustment for the focus. Moreover, they can be comparatively easily integrated into the application and a retrofit is also unproblematic in most cases.