A Six-DOF Micro-/Nanopositioning System

Motivated by the requirement of developing a high resolution, high precision and low parasitic motion positioning stage for spatial micro-/nanomanipulation, a six- DOF parallel flexure mechanism was analyzed in this paper. Tens of micrometers travel range and tens of nanometers resolution can be achieved. The stage has three flexible parallel limbs. To improve the resolution and linearity of the output displacement, a lever-bipod-lever displacement reduction mechanism was used for each limb. The lever mechanism can also be replaced by Scott-Russell and four-bar mechanisms. Levers were taken as an example for detailed design in the paper. Based on the matrix method, the output compliance model of the mechanism was established. The analytical model and the FEA result show a deviation of 21.74%. The FEA results also show that the first-order natural frequency of the mechanism is 188.84Hz when there is no load on the moveable platform. The experimental test results show that the open loop stroke of the mechanism is larger than 80μm × 80μm × 60μm × 400μrad × 400μrad × 600μrad and the resolution is better than 10nm × 10nm × 5nm × 100nrad × 100nrad × 200nrad. The experimental results demonstrate that the mechanism proposed in this paper is expected to be applied to micro-/nanopositioning.