A Six-Degree-of-Freedom Compliant Parallel Platform for Optoelectronic Packaging

Optoelectronic packaging is an important component of optical communication systems. However, it is a challenge for the packaging equipment to simultaneously have multiple degrees of freedom (DOF), wide range, and high precision. In this article, a six-degree-of-freedom (6-DOF) compliant parallel platform with all these features is presented. This platform has a parallel basic structure with large-stroke flexible joints. Based on elastokinematic analysis, the inverse kinematics solution of the platform is derived, and the effectiveness of the platform is proved by analyzing the 6-DOF motion via finite element analysis. The reachable workspace of the platform is analyzed, and its solution process is simplified using the inverse distance weighted method. Furthermore, a prototype of the proposed platform is presented and its accuracy is evaluated through experiments. Error compensation is used to significantly improve the motion accuracy of the platform. A closed-loop control that uses optical power meters instead of a multi-DOF detection device is proposed for optoelectronic packaging. The performance of the prototype applied to the packaging of coaxial optoelectronic devices is also demonstrated by experiments. The results demonstrate that the 6-DOF compliant parallel platform can successfully carry out the optical alignment of optoelectronic devices.