Development of Stopper Mechanism for the Precision Stage with Nanometer Accuracy

This paper presents a new stopper mechanism for precision stage by using the Piezoelectric element actuator. The new stage including a new stopper mechanism has the precision positioning mechanism that was been developed for generation displacements with nanometer accuracy and a millimeter dynamic range simulataneouly. The stage is composed not of the mechanical two stopper but of only one Piezoelectric element actuator. The characteristics for the new stage and the stopper have been evaluated experimentally. As the results, we can know that the linearity error characteristics of stage is 30nm in the measurement range. In addition, the experimental results are confirmed the possibility of the movement in millimeter range.