FINE STEPPING PIEZO ACTUATORS

LONG STROKE ACTUATOR WITH HIGH RESOLUTION POSITIONING

Piezo motors are linear or rotary motors offering high precision and blocking at rest. These properties make them suitable for long stroke micro positioning applications. CEDRAT TECHNOLOGIES has experimented different kinds of piezoelectric motors either by retrofitting / testing standard piezomotors or by developing new original concepts, in the context of space applications or fine instrumentation projects.

The presented motor is a linear stepping motor so called Fine Stepping Piezo Actuator (FSPA) able to support large external force without losing its holding position whether powered or unpowered. FSPA are based on inertial stepper piezo motors. They are composed of four main elements: an actuator, a lever arm, a mass and a clamp. The principle of such motors is simple and relies on stick-slip effect and dissymmetrical accelerations.

FSPA motor is well suited for example to tune arms’ lengths of interferometers, to align sensitive elements, to control shape of optical components (adaptative optic), … The motor being self-locking and vacuum compliant, it is well suited for demanding environments as found in space applications where unpowered locking is required during launch. Non-magnetic version of FSPA can also be used in high magnetic field (MRI) or high sensitivity applications. FSPA is a complement to the Linear Stepping Piezoelectric Actuators (LSPA) from CEDRAT TECHNOLOGIES.