Design and performance of a piezoelectric actuated precise rotary positioner

Industries including semiconductor, biotechnology, and nanotechnology are seeking compact and reliable nanometer resolution positioning techniques. To address this demand, this article presents a friction-drive rotary stage driven by a piezoelectric transducer (PZT) actuator. This stage includes a multilayer PZT actuator, the Scott-Russell mechanism, an actuation stage, a preload spring, and an output shaft. Its rotary positioning is accomplished by the stick-slip effect between the wire electrodischarge-machining rotary stage and the output shaft. Finite element analysis and Taguchi optimization method were extensively conducted to analyze the displacement, stress, and vibration behavior for optimum design. As shown by the experimental results, the stage achieved a resolution of 0.13μrad and a speed of 0.15°∕h by tuning of the preload spring.