Design of a miniature 3-DOF flexure-based mechanism for micro/nano manipulation

The work presented in this paper focuses on the design of a novel flexure-based mechanism capable of delivering planar motion with three degrees of freedom (3-DOF). Pseudo rigid body modeling (PRBM) and kinematic analysis of the mechanism are used to predict the motion of the mechanism in the X-, Y- and θ-directions. Lever based amplification is used to enhance the displacement of the mechanism. The presented design is small and compact in size (about 142mm by 110mm). The presented 3-DOF flexure-based miniature micro/nano mechanism delivers smooth motion in X, Y and θ, with maximum displacements of 142.09 μm in X-direction, 120.36 μm in Y-direction and 6.026 mrad in θ-rotation.