Computer controlled micropositioning stage for 3D MEMS fabrication

Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) are widely used in different industries like automobile and cell phone industries. There are several processes for MEMS fabrication. The most famous method is silicon fabrication technology which is based on Integrated Circuits (IC) fabrication process. In this paper a micropositioning stage is presented which can be used for fabricating three dimensional micro structures. It moves in X-Y directions with resolutions better than 5 microns in a limited range and can be used for MEMS fabrication. It consists of two step motors, ball screws, interface board and computer. Interface board transfers the signal between motors and computer using an ARM processor and peripheral hardware. Computer is the main processor which runs controlling algorithm. Obviously, it can be replaced by a simple microprocessor when the control method is finalized. The primary experimental results show 15 micrometer resolution, while the maximum movement length is more than 100 millimeters. Ethernet connection is used for transferring data between computer and hardware. It's possible to remote control the stage via LAN connection.