Analysis and characterisation of a kinematically decoupled compliant XY stage

Due to today´s product miniaturisation trend and a constant need for fast changeover to meet the rapid production change, there is a need to develop high yield affordable systems for miniaturised product assembly. Compliant micro-positioning stages offer low-cost high precision and high repeatability but limited workspace and nonlinear behaviour. This paper presents a kinematically decoupled XY stage with a travel range of ±2mm, less than 2.36% coupling and a ratio between axial (X/Y) and radial (Z) stiffness of 2.3. The stage is designed to be integrated within the fine positioning system of a hybrid miniaturised product assembly system.