High-precision and large-stroke XY micropositioning stage based on serially arranged compliant mechanisms with flexure hinges

Abstract Compliant mechanisms are state of the art in micropositioning stages due to their many beneficial features. However, their design usually compromises between motion range, motion accuracy and design space, while mechanisms with distributed compliance are mostly applied. The further use of flexure hinges with common notch shapes strongly limits the stroke in existing high-precision motion systems. Therefore, this paper presents a high-precision compliant XY micropositioning stage with flexure hinges capable of realizing a motion range of ± 10 mm along both axes. The stage is based on a novel plane-guidance mechanism, which is optimized to realize a precise rectilinear motion of the coupler link while keeping the rotation angles of all hinges below 5 ∘ . The XY motion is then achieved by coupling two of these mechanisms in a serial arrangement. Next, the synthesis of the monolithic XY stage is realized by replacing all revolute joints of the rigid-body model with flexure hinges using optimized power function notch shapes. Emphasis is also placed on the embodiment design of the stage and the actuator integration to minimize possible error sources. Finally, the quasi-static behavior of the compliant stage is characterized by a simulation with a 3D FEM model and by an experimental investigation of a prototype. According to the results, the developed compliant XY micropositioning stage achieves a maximum positioning deviation of less than 10 μm in both axes and a yaw error of less than 100 μrad over a working range of 20 mm × 20 mm with a comparably compact design of the compliant mechanism of 224 mm × 254 mm.