Abstract
This paper presents a small loading and positioning device using VCM (voice coil motor). The developed device consists of a VCM-based linear actuating system, a capacitance displacement sensor and a cantilever deflection sensing system. The trust force of the VCM proportional to applied current moves the column supported on two pairs of parallel leaf springs. The infinitesimal displacement of moved column is detected by capacitance displacement sensor with a resolution of 0.1nm and a repeatability of 1nm. Also, a micro cantilever with known stiffness (200N/m), which is mounted on the end of the column, is used as a force sensor to detect the load applied to a specimen. After the cantilever contacts with the specimen, the deflection of cantilever and the load applied to the specimen are measured by using an optical lever system which consists of a diode laser, a mirror and a PSD (position sensitive detector). In this paper, an experimental system was constructed and its actuator and sensing parts were tested and calibrated. Also, the constructed system was applied to the indentation experiment and the load-displacement curve of aluminum was obtained. Experimental results showed that the developed device can be applied for performing nano indentation.