Abstract
This paper presents the fabrication procedure and the experiments for the 3-axis fine positioning stage proposed in[1]. First, the dynamic characteristics of the actuator and the stage are tested with the preload changed in order to validate the stage design specifications. Secondly, the performance of the stage is also evaluated on the accuracy associated with linear positioning, angular error, and straightness error. Experimental results show that the developed stage is accurate enough to be used for nanometer positioning. Through the analysis and experiment, the developed fine positioning stage are found to have a long stroke due to the magnetically preloaded PZT actuators, the minimum motion crosstalk due to the use of a ball contact mechanism and the compact design.