Advances in precise positioning using the electrostatic glass motor

This paper reports the continuation of the authors work in the field of linear and rotary sub-micrometric positioning using electrostatic glass motors. Electrostatic glass motors, a development where a glass rotor, once polarized using a static electrostatic field, is synchronously following a moving electrostatic field, have been described previously. The potential application to precise positioning was proven feasible and promising. The present report describes a fully operational rotary prototype, featuring remarkable performances. It is shown that sub arc-second positioning is possible in open loop operation, over an infinite operation range and over a very broad speed range. After a brief recapitulation of the propulsion principle, the realized system is presented and characterized, its performance experimentally determined and discussed.