Mechatronic design, actuator optimization, and control of a long stroke linear nano-positioner

In this paper, mechatronic design, actuator optimization and controls of a long-stroke (20 mm) linear nano-positioner are presented. The mechatronic design is described in terms of the stage’s most prominent features regarding mechanical design, assembly, actuator configuration, and power supply. A novel air-bearing/bushing arrangement has been used in which the commonly employed double shaft arrangement is replaced with a single shaft supported by an air bearing from the bottom to constrain the roll motion. The assembly is greatly simplified by exploiting the self-aligning property of the air-bushings which are held in the housings by O-rings. Also, the footprint of the stage is reduced. Voice coil actuators (VCA) in moving magnet mode have been used in complementary double configuration for uniformity of force response. The performance objectives of previously optimized VCA’s as standalone actuators are re-evaluated in this configuration. It is observed that while the performance objectives decrease a bit, the desirability of the design point is still retained. Controller design has been made for the current control and position control loops. Heydemann’s method for the compensation of encoder quadrature detection errors is implemented. The positioning resolution of the stage as measured from the sensor output is experimentally determined to be +/−5 nm. Dynamic Error Budgeting (DEB) method has been used to analyze the contributing factors to the positioning error, and sensor broadband noise is determined to be the major contributor. The actual positioning accuracy of the stage is estimated by DEB to be 0.682 nm root-mean-square (RMS). The trajectory following accuracy is determined to be +/−15 nm. It is expected that trajectory following accuracy can substantially improve if more advanced compensation methods for encoder quadrature errors are implemented.