Linear stage achieves travel accuracy of 1µm over 100mm

The PIMag V-551 is a linear stage offered by PI (Physik Instrumente). Thanks to the force-guided crossed roller bearings (anti creep), it achieves a travel accuracy of 1µm over a travel range of 100mm. Care was taken during the design of the stage that no cables are moved as well. Therefore, it is especially suitable for scanning applications that require both high accelerations and high constant velocities. Possible fields of application include semiconductor or flat panel display manufacturing as well as medical technology, metrology and photonics or general use in industry and research.

The linear stage has a modular design and a width of only 160mm. This makes it possible to customise different versions according to customer applications. Therefore, it is possible to use a motor with 100 or 200N peak force and make travel ranges of 50, 130 or 230mm available. In addition, the working range can be adapted to the respective application using adjustable mechanical hard stops. The positioning accuracy can also be adjusted to the respective customer requirements by a variety of different measuring systems.

When operating with the appropriate C-891 motion controller from the same manufacturer, the standard version of the ironless magnetic direct offers a positioning resolution of 1.7nm and a repeatability of under 20nm. The highest achievable velocity is 500mm/s. An absolute encoder is integrated as standard which means that a reference move is not necessary during switch-on. In conjunction with motion controllers from PI, optional high-resolution incremental encoders make a design resolution of up to 0.03nm possible.