Optimal design and fabrication of a piezoactuated flexure XYZ parallel micropositioning stage

This paper presents the design and fabrication process of a new piezoelectrically actuated flexure-based XYZ compliant parallel-kinematics micropositioning stage with totally decoupled properties. The proposed XYZ stage consists of three limbs which are assembled in an orthogonal manner, and it has both input and output decoupling properties. Analytical models for kinematics, statics, and dynamics of the XYZ stage are established, which are validated by finite element analysis performed with ANSYS. Based on the derived models, architectural parameters of the stage are optimized and a prototype is developed for experimental studies. The results not only verify the effectiveness of the conducted optimum design but also confirm the well-decoupled performance of the XYZ stage, which will be used to execute micro-/nanomanipulation tasks.