Design and modeling of a novel 3-DOF precision micro-stage

Based on the well-known tripod parallel configuration, this paper presents a novel 3-DOF micro-stage for active micro-vibration control, which ensures compactness, lightness and simplicity of its structure. A novel strut utilizing the piezoelectric transducer and flexure hinge mechanism is proposed as an actuation unit not only to reduce the overall size but also to increase the horizontal stiffness of the micro-stage. Equipped with the novel actuation unit, a symmetric micro-stage is constructed in order to minimize the dynamic couplings among three axes. Through the physics-based modeling based on the first principles, a parametric model for the proposed micro-stage is established, which precisely predicts the experimentally determined empirical model over the frequency range of interest. The scalability of the developed model is subsequently examined and validated through the extensive experiments while varying the mass of payload. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.