Design, fabrication and testing of a hybrid micro-motion XY stage driven by voice coil actuators

Compliant micro-positioning stages offer high precision and repeatability. However, high accuracy typically involves a trade-off with workspace area and cost. This paper presents a compliant XY micro-motion stage, where hybrid manipulation has been implemented in an effort to maintain the workspace area and increase the positioning accuracy. The method presented in this work employs the use of a large range/low resolution linear encoders to measure the position of the stage (coarse positioning), before using short range/high resolution capacitive sensors to correct the positioning error (fine positioning). This solution achieves a positioning accuracy of greater than 3.28μm within a 6×6mm workspace. The compliant stage has been abrasive jet machined from Nylon-66 as its reduced Young's modulus is known to improve workspace area over conventional aluminium stages currently reported in literature.