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Six Degrees of Freedom, Zero Moving Cables In the F-206 Parallel kinematicsdesign, all cable terminations are on the stationary base elim- inating unpredictable friction and inertia, increasing resolu-tion and repeatability. Furtheradvantages of the system are: Virtualized Pivot Point It is important to have a fixedpivot point for alignment tasks, especially in photonics packag- ing. Because the parallel kine-matics motion of the F-206 is calculated with complex algo- rithms in the digital controller, it was easy to allow program-ming any point in space as cen-ter of rotation. The cartesian coordinates of any position and any orientation can be entered directly and the specified target will be reached after travel along a smooth, direct trajecto- ry.

Photonics Alignment Solutions - 13949 F-206.S

HexAlign™ 6-Axis Precision Alignment System / Manipulator (Hexapod)

F-206.SD HexAlign™ System with Digital Controller. PI Hexapodcontrollers automatically perform vector-based motion and 6Dcoordinate transformation. The systems are easy to program andare supplied with comprehensive software tools. Integrated Alignment Routines for Optical Fibers,Collimators and I/O Chips Parallel Kinematics with 6 Degrees of Freedom 0.033 µm Actuator Resolution Repeatability 0.3 µm in Space No Moving Cables for Improved Reliability, Reduced Friction No cable guides required Better Dynamics, More Compact than Serial Kinematics Systems Reduced Size and Inertia Improved Dynamic and Settling Behavior For Scanning and Alignment Cartesian Coordinate Control with Virtualized Pivot Point Identical Modular Actuators for Simplified Servicing Powerful Digital Controller with Open Source LabView™ Drivers, DLL Libraries... Choice of Optional Photometers Optional PIMotion&Vision with Integrated Real-Time Image Processing Compact, Plug & Play The F-206.S Hexapod is consid-erably smaller and more accu-rate than comparable serial kinematics, six-axis systems(stacks of single-axis units).The parallel kinematics of theF-206 is immune to the cumu-lative bending and guiding errors of the individual axes which, together with the inertia and friction of the moving cables, can limit accuracy in stacked systems. In addition, rotations are not set in hard- ware, but around a pivot pointfreely definable in software. Ahigh-performance controller does all necessary coordinate transformation for coordinat- ing the six drives. Because allthe actuators are attacheddirectly to the same movingplatform, there are none of the servo-tuning problems associ- ated with the loading and iner- tia differences of the different axes, inherent in stacked sys- tems.
Application Examples The F-206.S HexAlign™ Hexa-pod is a highly accurate micro- positioning system for com-plex multi-axis alignmenttasks. It is based on PI’s long experience with ultra-high-res- olution, parallel kinematics sta- ges. Unlike hexapods with vari- able-length struts (“legs”), the F-206 features constant-lengthstruts and friction-free flexureguides. This gives the F-206 better resolution and repeat- ability than other hexapod de- signs.

Photonics packaging Fiber alignment Micromachining Micromanipulation (lifescience) Semiconductor handling / test systems MEMS fabrication/testing Optics integration Optical device testing Collimator and fiber bundle alignment

The parallel kinematics design with constant-length struts reduces themoved mass virtually to that of the light-weight platform. This is why the F-206 can react and settle significantly faster than stacked serial kinema- tics systems, where each stage must move not only its own platform, but also all the stages above it and their cables. The F-206 has no movingcables to cause friction that degrades resolution and repeatability.

MEMS positioning/alignment

© PI 1998-2005. Subject to change w/o notice. Cat 118 05/09.17 8-8