Design of a decoupled 2-DOF translational parallel micro-positioning stage

In this paper, a new type of decoupled 2-DOF translational parallel micro-positioning stage is designed to realize the 2-DOF ultra-precision linear motion. The stage consists of two piezoelectric actuators (PZTs) and a monolithic compliant mechanism. The monolithic compliant mechanism adopts two types of compound double parallel four-leaf flexures and a mirror symmetric structure to reduce the input and output cross coupling and parasitic motion. Based on the stiffness matrix method and screw theory, a mathematical model is constructed to analyze the compliant mechanism. The optimal design is performed in view of performance constraints. The design results show good static and dynamic performances of the stage, which are well validated by the simulation of finite-element-analysis (FEA) and experimental results. The experimental results show that the proposed stage has a full range of 40μm × 40μm when the full voltage(100V) is applied on the two PZTs. Besides, the stage only has the maximum cross coupling of -50dB between the two axes, low enough to utilize single-input-single-out(SISO) control strategies for positioning and tracking.