Alignment of flexure stages for best rectilinear performance

Alson E. Hatheway

doi:10.1117/12.218682

6 September 1995 Alignment of flexure stages for best rectilinear performance

Alson E. Hatheway

Proceedings Volume 2542, Optomechanical and Precision Instrument Design; (1995) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.218682
Event: SPIE's 1995 International Symposium on Optical Science, Engineering, and Instrumentation, 1995, San Diego, CA, United States

Abstract

Flat blade flexure stages have attracted attention for many years because of their potential for producing smooth, large-stroke and hysteresis-free motions, especially close approximations of rectilinear motion. Although smooth operation has been demonstrated many times over, close approximations of rectilinear motion have been rare and achieved at relatively great cost in time and facilities. This has been true because most investigators have relied on 'composite flexures' in which each flexure element is assembled form as many as five separate pieces, all of which need to be aligned to each other as well as the rest of the instrument in which each flexure is only one element. 'Monolithic flexures' have just recently become commercially available and make possible of the first time the precise assembly and alignment of blade flexure systems with a modest investment in time and resources. This resources investigates the precision behavior of a simple flexure stage constructed with monolithic blade flexures and compares it with the behavior attainable from a similar stage using composite flexures. The natural trajectory of such a flexure stage is described and equations for the deviations from the ideal trajectory, parasitic motions, are developed. The results of the analysis are compared to the actual results from testing a commercially available simple monolithic flexure stage.

Citation Download Citation

Alson E. Hatheway "Alignment of flexure stages for best rectilinear performance", Proc. SPIE 2542, Optomechanical and Precision Instrument Design, (6 September 1995); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.218682

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