Miniature Positioning Stage Family Boasts 10nm Resolution and 200mm/sec Speed

Lightweight, fast, stable, reliable – the new ultrasonic motor stages from PI are easy to control and integrate into industry and research applications.

Precision motion specialist PI (Physik Instrumente) adds a new integrated XY stage to its compact high-speed positioning stage roster, all powered by ultrasonic piezo-linear motors. The patented motors provide smooth motion, high resolution and rapid step and settle response while the self-clamping drive principle locks the platform in place without power, an advantage in applications where position stability and low power consumption matter.

Long Travel, Compact, Fast and Quiet, Wide Dynamic Range

The U-723 XY stage provides 0.8” travel per axis, with a footprint of only 42x42mm (1.6x1.6”). Its low profile of 21mm (~0.8”) and miniaturized design allows for easy integration into tight spaces. In addition to high resolution (10 nanometer linear encoders) it provides high speed motion up to 200 mm/sec and rapid step/settle performance.

The U-723 XY stage joins its U-523 single axis sibling and the even smaller U-521 miniature stage.

High-End Motion Controllers, Software Package

To take advantage of the operating principle, providing superior dynamic performance with settling times in the millisecond range while maintaining high resolution and smooth operation, ultrasonic motors benefit from advanced control strategies, such as automatic switchover between several static and dynamic PID parameter sets and adaptive frequency tracking. PI offers a number of ultrasonic motion controllers (C-867 and C-877 product families) available in desktop, rack-mount, and OEM configurations. An ASIC chip containing the motion control algorithms is also available for OEM customers. A comprehensive software package is included: drivers and example programs for LabVIEW, dynamic libraries for Windows and Linux, MATLAB are available. Interfaces include TCP/IP, USB, RS-232 and analog.

Standard and Custom

PI has in-house engineered solutions with over 4 decades of experience working with customers to provide products that meet application demands, and can quickly modify existing product designs or provide a fully customized OEM part to fit the exact requirements of the application.