Experimental-model-based precision control of a piezoelectric actuated flexure stage

This paper presents a precision motion stage developed for nanometer level positioning. To achieve the required motion resolution, a piezoelectric actuator and flexure-based displacement mechanism are used. Results of extensive experiments on hysteresis and creep phenomena of the piezoelectric actuator are reported. Position measurement for feedback control is performed by fiber optical laser interferometer encoders. A simple and effective experiment-model-based recursive control method is proposed for nanometric position control of the piezoelectric actuated stage. Experiment results show that by using the proposed simple control method, the motion stage is able to achieve a position tracking accuracy up to a limit, i.e. 10 nm, due to the resolution of the position measurement device.