Precision Motion Control of a Three Degrees of Freedom Hybrid Stage With Dual Actuators

This paper presents a three degrees of freedom precision hybrid stage that can move and align an object on it for measurement of its three-dimensional image using the confocal scanning microscope. The hybrid stage consists of two individually operating x-y-thetas stages, called the coarse stage and the fine stage. The coarse stage is driven by the three linear motors and produces the initial movement of an object. On the other hand, the fine stage is driven by the four voice coil motors and provides the final alignment of it with sub-micron meter accuracy. For control of the hybrid stage, we propose a precision motion controller. The performances of the precision motion controller of the hybrid stage are evaluated by experiment with a hardware setup.