A piezodriven XY-microstage for multiprobe nanorecording

The properties of electrostatic, electromagnetic and piezoelectric actuators used for XY-microstage are compared to indicate high area efficiency but no good machinability of piezoelectric actuator, so that a novel planer fabrication method of the piezodriven XY-microstage with one PZT plate has been proposed. This fabrication method includes three processes, dicing, electroplating, femtosecond laser machining and so no. A Parallelogram mechanism with flexure hinges, lever mechanisms and piezoelectrical actuators has been designed to make XY-displacement in monolayer plane structure. The area efficiency and volume efficiency of piezodriven XY-microstage are very higher than electrostaticdriven and electromagneticdriven one. The relationship of displacement characteristics with the sizes of parallelogram mechanism has been tested with the several principium prototypes fabricated by femtosecond laser machining of single nickel plate and assembly of PZT actuator. The test results show that the flexure hinges the shorter, the accuracy of the XY-displacement the better. Thirty micrometer displacement and 50% and above area efficiency have been obtained in the principium prototype. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.