Development of a laser-based high-precision six-degrees-of-freedom motion errors measuring system for linear stage

This article presents a useful measuring system for the simultaneous measurement of six-degrees-of-freedom motion errors of a moving stage. The system integrates a miniature fiber coupled laser interferometer with specially designed optical paths and quadrant detectors, capable of measuring six-degrees-of-freedom motion errors. Using this model, the proposed measuring method provides rapid performance, simplicity of setup, and preprocess verification of a linear stage. The experimental setups and measuring procedures, and a systematic calculated method for the error verification are presented in the paper. The system's resolution of measuring straightness error component is about 25 nm. The resolution of measuring the pitch and yaw angular error component is about 0.06 arcs. With the comparison between the HP calibration system and the proposed system in the measuring range of 120 mm, the system accuracy of measuring straightness error and angular error is within the range +/- 0.6 mu m and +/- 0.3 arcs.