PI Motion Control Applications For Piezo Flexure Actuators Air Bearings PDF

White Paper:
Advances in Precision Motion Control
Part I Piezo Flexure Mechanisms

Part II Air Bearings
1 of 13
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Part I Piezo Flexure Mechanisms
Piezo Flexure Actuators and Air Bearings for Precision Motion
Control Applications
Flexure-guided and motion-amplified actuators provide convenience and performance
for the OEM designer. Piezo motors expand the motion range.
Piezo actuators, a special form of electro-ceramics, are the gold standard when it comes to precision, speed, and
force in a small package. To make them more accessible for the OEM designer, manufacturers package the
actuators inside an arrangement of flexures providing precision guidance and amplified motion along with a
simple mounting interface. Flexures are usually made of aluminum, steel or titanium. With the absence of
friction and wear, they can provide billions of cycles of maintenance-free service.
At the heart of piezoelectric

flexure actuators is a stack of
layers of specialized ceramic,
only a few dozen microns thick,
interleaved with electrodes, and
sintered into a solid structure.
The most common piezo ceramic
for high-performance positioning
applications is PZT (lead-
zirconate-titanate), a
ferroelectric ceramic. This
material is useful for positioning
because PZT ceramic exhibits a
small, but almost linear
dimensional change as voltage is
PICMA® Ceramic encapsulated multilayer piezo stack are at the heart of applied across the electrodes.
the latest piezo flexure motion systemss. Spherical tips facilitate This provides a precise,
integration. controllable motion input to the
engineer’s mechanism. Position
changes on the order of nanometers can be achieved without difficulty.
Why Use Piezo?

The operation of the piezo ceramic element is characterized by four factors: a) precision; b) speed; c) short
travels; and d) high force.
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The stack’s positioning precision comes from its almost-linear dimensional change, which is free of stiction
effects and can allow controllability down to the sub-nanometer range. This is why piezoelectric mechanisms are
at the heart of today’s semiconductor lithography tools, atomic-force microscopes, and the other nanoscale-
precision systems.
Its speed comes from the solid-state actuation of the stack, which propagates at the speed of sound through the
material, yielding responsiveness into the kHz region, with correspondingly impressive force capability. The
speed of sound actuation also means that piezo actuators can respond to an input in microseconds, a feature
that makes them suitable to applications such as valve control and nano-dosing where nanometer precision is
only infrequently of secondary importance.
Precision is one of the reasons to

chose a piezo flexure guided
positioning system. The graph above
shows crisp, repeatable sub-
nanometer step response of a P-
630 miniature flexure-guided
nanopositioning stage, measured
with Zygo laser interferometer.
Its travel limitation comes from the maximum strain the actuators can achieve, typically about 1 percent of their
length. Consequently, piezoelectric flexure actuators utilize frictionless lever amplifiers that magnify the
actuator motion. Clever design means motion ranges of up to 2mm can be achieved in compact packages.
Until recently, piezoelectric flexure

actuators have mostly been employed
inside specialized piezoelectric stages for
ultra-precision positioning applications and
were not easily available to the OEM
mechanical engineer. That has changed, and
flexure actuators with long travels are now
available as off-the-shelf items for ready
integration into custom mechanisms. This
new accessibility has opened the door for a
wide variety of specialized mechanisms
across a broad spectrum of industries.
Animation – piezo flexure drives explained
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Ease of Use and Cost Effectiveness
The latest generation multilayer

piezo actuators are based on all-
ceramic designs. They can handle
high humidity environments, unlike
their conventionally polymer
insulated siblings.
Central to the utility of piezoelectric flexure actuators is their range of configurations and their well-thought-out
mounting provisions. These are easy mechanisms to integrate into a design. Everything has been considered:
their integrated preload mechanisms accommodate even high-dynamic actuation; their optional position
sensors are pre-aligned and reproducible; their flexure guidance accommodates common applications without
difficulty. A wide range of controllers are available, spanning the spectrum of capability and cost. Some feature
the latest communications interfaces, internal waveform-generation capability, all-digital servo-controlled
including trimpot-free calibration, and integrated data-collection options, all in cost-effective, OEM-friendly
configurations.
OEM board-level
piezo driver (left)
and E-709 digital
servo closed-loop
piezo controller
shown with a piezo
flexure positioning
stage for microscopy
applications.
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Broad Choices, New Options
The new piezoelectric flexure actuators complement and extend the existing portfolio of form-factors and
packaging styles for piezoelectric actuators. Ceramic stacks – with or without integrated position sensors – have
traditionally been available to engineers wishing to perform all integration.
Packaged actuators have commonly been used for applications needing easy mounting and integral low-stiction
preloads for dynamic actuation.
The new breed of fully integrated flexure actuators now offer preconfigured subassemblies which integrate
stictionless lever amplification as well as preload elements and optional position feedback. Thus, piezoelectric
flexure actuators offer especially easy mounting for the greatest convenience and performance for research and
OEM applications, and they require the least specialized engineering to design-in and implement.
Piezo flexure amplified

actuators in different
customization levels,
from low-cost OEM
actuators suited to drive
micro-pumps to
complete closed-loop
nano-focus positioning
systems.
All of these choices share the common benefits of piezoelectric actuators, such as nanoscale precision, high
speed and force, solid-state and lubricant-free actuation, non-magnetic and field-free operation, and vacuum
compatibility.
Travel vs. Force Generation

Piezo flexure actuators are used for precision positioning, as well as for moving things quickly, and for force
generation. Force generation usually means pushing against an external elastic material.
Piezo flexure actuator with a simple parallelogram

flexure guiding system and motion amplifier. The
amplification r (transmission ratio) is given by (a+b)/a.
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Force generation vs. displacement of an
ideal piezo actuator (displacement 300
µm, stiffness 20 N/µm) working against an
external spring. The points where the
dashed lines (external spring curves)
intersect the piezo actuator
force/displacement curves determine the
force and displacement for a given setup
with an external spring. The stiffer the
external spring (flatter dashed line), the
less the displacement and the greater the
force generated by the actuator.
Maximum work is generated when the
stiffness of the piezo actuator and
external spring are matched.
As the diagram shows, working against a load reduces the available travel of an actuator, according to a simple
formula:
Effective force that a piezo actuator can generate in a yielding restraint, where:
L0 = max. nominal displacement without external force or restraint (m)
kT = piezo actuator stiffness (N/m)
kS = stiffness of external spring (N/m)
Stiffness, Responsiveness
The additional motion provided by flexure-amplified piezo actuators does, however, come at a price. With
increasing amplification ratio, both stiffness and responsiveness are reduced. Nevertheless, well designed piezo
flexure actuators can still provide sub-millisecond step-and-settle times, significantly faster than any other
conventional actuator.
The following relations apply to (ideal) motion amplifiers for any primary drive system:
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In this formula:
r = motion amplifier ratio
L0 = travel of the primary drive (m)
LSys = travel of the lever-amplified system (m)
ksys = stiffness of the lever-amplified system (N/m)
k0 = stiffness of the primary drive system (piezo stack and joints) (N/m)
fres-0 = resonant frequency of the primary drive system (piezo stack and joints) (Hz)
fres-sys = resonant frequency of the amplified system (Hz)
Resonant frequency is directly proportional to the responsiveness of the system.
Custom Actuators: No One-Size-Fits-All Solution

With the variety of parameters, such as size, force, precision, travel range and cost, it is obvious that one flexure
actuator cannot fit all applications. Often, a standard part may come close enough to be integrated in a
prototype, however, for optimized cost and performance, it usually pays off for the OEM mechanical system
engineer to work closely with an experienced piezo mechanism manufacturer. Prototypes of custom designs can
be prepared within as little as a few weeks.
Custom flexure positioners in different sizes

for different load and force generation.
Piezo-flexure drives are used for
applications from fiber-optics alignment to
precision machining.
Mars Mission: 100 Billion Cycles of Lifetime

Regardless of the form-factor, the latest designs of piezoelectric actuators are very reliable mechanisms. They
must be, since they are the mission-critical heart of so many industrial and research applications, ranging from
semiconductor fabrication to atomic-force microscopy. After all, they are structurally quite similar to ceramic
capacitors, which are ubiquitous in electronics. However, they can be sensitive to humidity. Previously, PZT
stacks were encapsulated by painting them with a polymer coating. This provided a small amount of protection
against infiltration by ambient water vapor. Far more effective is the patented construction of PICMA® model
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actuators – developed by Physik Instrumente (PI), which has played a pioneering role in advancing the
development of piezo devices – incorporating a hermetic ceramic coating and many subtle design details which
ensure long life, even in the presence of high humidity. PICMA stacks are used in all PI flexure actuators.
The solid state, frictionless design means wear and tear is not an issue when it comes to lifetime. Recent tests
for space qualification of PICMA actuators have shown that even after 100 billion cycles the actuator
performance only dropped by a few percentage points. See www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21507759.
These actuators are now used in the Mars Science Laboratory on the Curiosity rover’s Chemln particle analyzer
instrument. See http://msl-scicorner.jpl.nasa.gov/Instruments/CheMin/.
Expanding the Spectrum of Piezoelectric Motion

Piezoelectric flexure actuators are but one utensil in a deep toolbox of motion technologies driven by
piezoelectric principles, which include:
 Piezo ceramic stacks
 Packaged, preloaded stack piezo actuators
 Piezo flexure actuators
 Piezo linear motors with long travels and nanoscale position-hold stability
A. Walking motors for high push/pull and holding force
B. Ultrasonic resonant motors for high speeds
C. Incrementing inertial motors (stick/slip) for low cost and minimized dimensions
Different piezo motor

driven actuators provide
long travel ranges to
100’s of mm’s: inertia-
type mini-rod actuators
(top left), ultrasonic, high-
speed actuator (top right)
and Q-motion series
miniaturized multi-axis
stick-slip motor stages
(bottom)
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Comparison of force, speed, and travel capabilities of different piezo-based drive systems
Summary
Piezoelectric flexure drives offer unmatched ability to drop into a custom assembly and provide fast, precise
actuation without fuss and bother, and with demonstrated reliability to extend into the many billions of cycles.
Recently-introduced piezo-motor technologies expand the use of piezo motion into long travel applications.
Piezoelectric devices are increasingly being utilized by product designers and incorporated successfully into a
widening range of applications where precision motion control is needed. These devices are compact, require
low voltage, deliver high torque, exhibit short response time, generate little heat, are both nonmagnetic and
vacuum compatible, and have few mechanical component parts to wear out and service.
The latest generation of piezo mechanisms delivers an even broader product development capability for OEM
designers.
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Part II Air Bearings
When to Use Air Bearing Positioning Stages and Mechanical Stages
reducing in-position „hunting“ (limit cycling) and position
INTRODUCTION repeatability can be obtained within a few fundamental

Most motion applications are perfectly well-served by encoder counts. Similar precision can be obtained by
mechanical bearing guidance; but there are many cases piezo flexure guided stages, however over much smaller
where precision, angular repeatability, and geometric travel ranges. Magnetic levitation is another option.
performance must be optimal or where submicron bearing
rumble is problematic. An air-bearing stage can help in
these situations. An air-bearing stage is a rotary or linear
positioner that floats on a cushion of air, using one of
several preload mechanisms, nearly eliminating
mechanical contact and thus wear, friction, and hysteresis
effects. These are the most common indicators that an air-
bearing stage might be the right choice for your
application.
Video: How Planar Air Bearing Stages Work
(Image: PI USA)
2. VELOCITY STABILITY AND

SCANNING
The lack of mechanical bearing elements means there is
nothing to get in the way of smooth, controlled velocity
Three motor planar XY air bearing stage with active yaw (stability to better than 0.01%). Experiments and
control. (Image: PI USA) processes like inertial sensor testing, tomography, wafer
scanning, and surface profiling require continuous motion
1. FRICTIONLESS HIGH- at a tightly controlled speeds are best served by air-
PRECISION POSITIONING bearing systems.
A direct-drive motor and high-resolution encoder can

position a moving carriage supported by an air bearing to
within nanometers in a linear application or within tenths of
arc-seconds in rotational applications. The lack of friction
and mechanical contact means there is minimal hysteresis
Rotary air bearing stages reduce wobble and eccentricity
or reversal error, making it highly repeatable and ideal for
significantly over their mechanical counterparts. (Image:
many inspection and manufacturing operations. Stiction is
PI USA)
virtually eliminated, improving resolution capabilities and
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3. VERY LOW ERROR MOTIONS
Linear air bearing stages have incredibly straight and flat
travels, and pitch, roll, and yaw errors can be measured in
tenths of arc-seconds. Rotary stages can have tilt
(wobble) errors less than 1 arc-second. Additionally, the
angular performance of an air bearing is remarkably
repeatable. This guarantees optimal part quality and
measurement reliability for applications like mirror and
optics inspection, semiconductor inspection, and medical Multi-Axis Magnetic Levitation Stage (Image: PI)
device manufacturing. 5. WOBBLE-FREE OR HIGH

SPEED ROTARY MOTION IS
NEEDED
Rotary air bearings are exceptionally stiff and can deliver
highly precise rotary motion. Radial, axial, and wobble
error motions are much smaller than most mechanical
bearing solutions can provide, and the rotary motion is
very smooth, since there are no roller elements.
Surface averaging effect of an air bearing improves

straightness / flatness of motion and reduces high-
frequency bearing rumble. For more information on
geometric performance: Read article, “Straightness and
Flatness of Air Bearings” (Image: PI USA)
4. TRAVEL REQUIREMENTS ARE

GREATER THAN A FLEXURE
STAGE CAN PROVIDE
Piezo-driven flexure stages and actuators can satisfy
many high-precision positioning applications. However,
these designs are usually limited to a few millimeters of Radial runout error motion of a 300mm rotary air bearing
travel. Use an air bearing linear stage for travels of 25mm stage for use in a synchrotron beamline test facility is less
or more. PI manufactures linear air bearings with travels than +/-35 nanometers. Wobble error motion is calculated
up to a meter, and even greater with a custom design. to be +/-0.2 µrad (+/- 0.04 arc-sec). (Image: PI USA)
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Rotary positioning stages generally can achieve speeds
up to 600 RPM, while air bearing spindles are used in
higher speed applications. Rotary bearing designs can be
mounted with the plane of the table in either the horizontal
(i.e. turntable) or vertical orientations.
Spherical air bearings can be used to simulate zero

gravity. (Image: Nelson Air)
8. PRECISE FORCE CONTROL

AND SENSING
Air bearings are virtually frictionless, which means when
they are coupled with a direct drive motor or voice coil,
they are ideal for micro- and nano-Newton force control
Rotary air bearing (Image: Nelson Air)
applications. Such applications can include pick-and place
6. MINIMAL MAINTENANCE of delicate items, materials testing, and coordinate
measuring applications.
There are no contacting parts to undergo wear and tear,
and no regular maintenance procedures to be performed
like lubrication. An air-bearing stage is essentially WHEN WOULD YOU AVOID AN AIR
maintenance-free. Further, the system is highly stable, BEARING
since there is no wear, the performance characteristics
should not change over the life of the system. There is 1. VACUUM ENVIRONMENTS
little need for recalibration. Moving cables and hoses are
often the only wear items in an air bearing system. While it is not impossible to operate an air bearing in a
vacuum, it is challenging. Vacuum applications should
7. CLEANLINESS generally be avoided and instead use mechanical bearing,
mag-lev, or flexure systems.
Because air bearings are wear-free, they generate virtually
no particulates that can become airborne. This makes
them ideal for cleanroom applications like optics
inspection, wafer inspection, bio-pharma research, and
flat-panel display inspection. For extremely clean
applications, it is recommended that the air bearing
operate using 99.9% pure nitrogen.
A flexure guided, UHV compatible XYZ piezo

nanopositioning stage (Image: PI)
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2. VERY DIRTY APPLICATIONS
Air bearings are generally used in clean environments.
Applications where heavy amounts of dust, dirt, debris,
and fluids are present should generally be avoided.
3. PRESSURIZED AIR OR
NITROGEN IS NOT AVAILABLE
Air bearings require a continuous supply of clean
compressed air or nitrogen. If the application does not
allow for such a supply to be present, an air bearing
cannot be used.
Additional Information
> WATCH air bearing stages videos
> READ article, “Straightness and Flatness of Air

Bearings”
> LEARN more on PI USA website
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White Paper:

Advances in Precision Motion Control

Part I Piezo Flexure Mechanisms

PI (Physik Instrumente) L.P. info@pi-usa.us www.pi-usa.us

At the heart of piezoelectric

Why Use Piezo?

PI (Physik Instrumente) L.P. info@pi-usa.us www.pi-usa.us

Precision is one of the reasons to

Until recently, piezoelectric flexure

Animation – piezo flexure drives explained

PI (Physik Instrumente) L.P. info@pi-usa.us www.pi-usa.us

The latest generation multilayer

PI (Physik Instrumente) L.P. info@pi-usa.us www.pi-usa.us

Piezo flexure amplified

Travel vs. Force Generation

Piezo flexure actuator with a simple parallelogram

PI (Physik Instrumente) L.P. info@pi-usa.us www.pi-usa.us

PI (Physik Instrumente) L.P. info@pi-usa.us www.pi-usa.us

Resonant frequency is directly proportional to the responsiveness of the system.

Custom Actuators: No One-Size-Fits-All Solution

Custom flexure positioners in different sizes

Mars Mission: 100 Billion Cycles of Lifetime

PI (Physik Instrumente) L.P. info@pi-usa.us www.pi-usa.us

Expanding the Spectrum of Piezoelectric Motion

Different piezo motor

PI (Physik Instrumente) L.P. info@pi-usa.us www.pi-usa.us

PI (Physik Instrumente) L.P. info@pi-usa.us www.pi-usa.us

INTRODUCTION repeatability can be obtained within a few fundamental

2. VELOCITY STABILITY AND

A direct-drive motor and high-resolution encoder can

PI (Physik Instrumente) L.P. info@pi-usa.us www.pi-usa.us

device manufacturing. 5. WOBBLE-FREE OR HIGH

Surface averaging effect of an air bearing improves

4. TRAVEL REQUIREMENTS ARE

PI (Physik Instrumente) L.P. info@pi-usa.us www.pi-usa.us

Spherical air bearings can be used to simulate zero

8. PRECISE FORCE CONTROL

A flexure guided, UHV compatible XYZ piezo

PI (Physik Instrumente) L.P. info@pi-usa.us www.pi-usa.us

> WATCH air bearing stages videos

> READ article, “Straightness and Flatness of Air

> LEARN more on PI USA website

PI (Physik Instrumente) L.P. info@pi-usa.us www.pi-usa.us

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