ff . Excellent Guiding Accuracy The multilink flexure guiding sys-tems employed in most PI piezo nanopositioners (Fig. 2) eliminate cosine errors and provide bidirec- tional flatness and straightness in the nanometer or microradian range. This high precision means that even the most demanding positioning tasks can be run bidi-rectionally for higher throughput.For more information on flexure- guided nanopositioning systems, see Tutorial pages 4-43

Introduction to Piezo Flexure Nanopositioners and Industrial scanners

P-733 low-profile XY and XYZ scanning stages. Lifetime / PICMA
® Piezo Actuators PI nanopositioning systemsemploy the award-winning PICMA Piezo Nanopositioning andScanning Systems vs. Traditional Micropositioning Stages Higher Speed
® PI Nanopositioning and scanningsystems with frictionless flexure guidance are decidedly superior to positioners with conventional guiding systems (crossed rollerbearings, etc.) in terms of resolu-tion, reproducibility, straightness and flatness. Due to their inherent friction and limited guiding preci- sion, traditional positioners are best used in applications requiring repeatability on the order of 0.1µm, even though industrial encoder readoutmay indicate much higher resolu- tion. In contrast, PI piezo-driven flexure nanopositioners can easily achieve repeatability and mini- mum incremental motion in thesubnanometer realm With piezo drives, capable of accel-erations of up to 10,000 g, and theirlow moved mass, such piezo stages can provide significantly higher scanning speeds than motorized systems. piezo actuators, the only actuators with cofired ceramic encapsula- tion. The PIMCA Why Flexures? Flexure motion is based on theelastic deformation (flexing) of a solid material. Friction and stiction are entirely eliminated, and flex- ures exhibit high stiffness, load capacity and resistance to shock and vibration. Flexures are mainte-nance free and not subject to wear.They are vacuum compatible, operate over a wide temperature range and require neither lubri- cants nor compressed air for oper- ation.
® piezo technologywas specifically developed by PI’s piezoceramic division to provide higher performance and lifetime in nanopositioning applications. See pp. 4-37, 4-38 and1-12for moreinformation. Multilayer piezo actuators are sim-ilar to ceramic capacitors and are not affected by wear and tear. PI nanopositioning systems are designed to be driven at lower voltages than most other piezosystems (100 V vs. 150 V). Theresearch literature, PI’s own test data and 30+ years of experience all confirm that lower average elec- tric fields, lead to longer lifetime. .
Fig. 2. Wire-EDM cutting process provides highest-accuracy flexure guidingsystems in compact nanopositioning stages. Fig. 1. Long-travel (10 mm) multi-dimensional, Roberts-linkage flexure system prevents parallelogram errors in XYZ positioning applications. © PI 1998-2005. Subject to change w/o notice. Cat 118 05/09.17 2-4