A Novel Piezoactuated XY Stage With Parallel, Decoupled, and Stacked Flexure Structure for Micro-/Nanopositioning

This paper presents the design and manufacturing processes of a new piezoactuated XY stage with integrated parallel, decoupled, and stacked kinematics structure for micro-/nanopositioning application. The flexure-based XY stage is composed of two decoupled prismatic-prismatic limbs which are constructed by compound parallelogram flexures and compound bridge-type displacement amplifiers. The two limbs are assembled in a parallel and stacked manner to achieve a compact stage with the merits of parallel kinematics. Analytical models for the mechanical performance assessment of the stage in terms of kinematics, statics, stiffness, load capacity, and dynamics are derived and verified with finite element analysis. A prototype of the XY stage is then fabricated, and its decoupling property is tested. Moreover, the Bouc-Wen hysteresis model of the system is identified by resorting to particle swarm optimization, and a control scheme combining the inverse hysteresis model-based feedforward with feedback control is employed to compensate for the plant nonlinearity and uncertainty. Experimental results reveal that a submicrometer accuracy single-axis motion tracking and biaxial contouring can be achieved by the micropositioning system, which validate the effectiveness of the proposed mechanism and controller designs as well.