Novel design of a totally decoupled flexure-based XYZ parallel micropositioning stage

This paper presents the design process of a totally decoupled flexure-based XYZ compliant parallel-kinematics micropositioning stage. The uniqueness of the proposed XYZ stage lies in that it consists of three monolithic limbs and has both input and output decoupling properties. The output decoupling is allowed by the employment of a proposed 2-D compound parallelogram flexure, and the input decoupling is implemented by actuation isolation which is enabled by the double compound parallelogram flexures with large transverse stiffness. By modeling each flexure hinge as a 2-DOF compliant joint, analytical models for the amplification ratio and input stiffness of the XYZ stage are established, which are validated by finite element analysis performed with ANSYS. The presented results are useful for the development of a new XYZ micropositioning stage for the micro-/nanomanipulation applications.