An integrated design method for piezo-actuated compliant mechanisms considering configurations, flexure elements, and actuators

With the wide application of piezo-actuated compliant mechanisms (PACM) in the nano-positioning domain, it has been a crucial and challenging issue to design optimal PACMs with various design objectives and constraints. In this paper, an integrated design method for the planar PACMs is developed to realize their comprehensive performance optimization, considering the key factors, including mechanical configurations, flexure elements, and piezoelectric actuators (PEA). This method can effectively consider the complicated coupled dynamics between compliant mechanisms and actuators and further accurately predict the actual performance of the PACMs. Utilizing the Pareto optimality idea, the method can efficiently find the performance limits of various alternative configurations and offer the most appropriate design solutions for practical engineering applications. Two nano-positioning stages used for atomic force microscope (AFM) imaging are designed from alternative combinations of four configurations, five types of actuators, and twelve types of flexure hinges to illustrate the detailed design procedures. The results of the finite element analysis (FEA) and experiments finally verify the performance of the designed stages and validate the effectiveness of the proposed design method.