Sensorless vibration suppression and scan compensation for piezoelectric tube nanopositioners

Piezoelectric tube scanners are employed in high-resolution positioning applications such as scanning probe microscopy and nanofabrication. Much research has proceeded with the aim of reducing hysteresis and vibration-the two foremost problems associated with piezoelectric tube scanners. In this paper, two simple techniques are proposed for simultaneously reducing hysteresis and vibration: 1) A new dc accurate charge amplifier is shown to significantly reduce hysteresis while avoiding characteristic voltage drift. 2) Piezoelectric shunt damping, a technique previously resident in the field of smart structures, has been applied to damp tube vibration. By attaching an LCR impedance to a single tube electrode, the first mechanical mode is reduced in magnitude by more than 20 dB.