Descend the escalator and enter the exhibit hall to the world’s largest multidisciplinary photonics event, taking just a few steps past the entrance, PI’s booth displays the latest state-of-the-art precision motion technologies. PI engineers are on-hand to answer questions and help you find the right solution for your precision motion project in industry, research, or science.
Miniaturization – Finger-Tip Sized Positioners, Q-Motion Product Line
The need for miniaturization of instruments requires opto-mechanical alignment, positioning, and assembly on a smaller scale with smallest class of precision motorized linear and rotary positioners. Direct drive inertia piezo motors that are only a few millimeters in size with no gears enable ultra-compact stages.
Finger-tip size linear and rotary stages are standard, and much smaller custom designs are feasible. Single to 6-axis designs are available. Resolutions from microns to nanometers are standard.
High-Speed Automation: Linear Motors / Air Bearings / Piezo Flexures
Piezo flexure-guided linear positioners offer excellent precision and responsiveness with step and settle typically in the millisecond range, billions of cycles of service life.
Cost-effective and small footprint options are available for easy integration into applications, such as image scanning, overlay, fast autofocus, interferometry, and super-resolution microscopy. Air bearings with linear motor drives provide another option when long travel vibration-free motion is required, highly constant velocity control is crucial, together with angular repeatability and geometric performance.
High-Speed Photonics Alignment Engines: One of 2016’s Most Technologically Significant Products
An R&D 100 winner in the Analytical/Test category, PI’s SiP alignment product line addresses the requirement of aligning multiple parallel optical paths with multiple, interacting inputs and outputs, all requiring optimization.
The automated alignment engines include 3 to 6-axis mechanisms, controllers with firmware based alignment algorithms, and the software tools to meet the high accuracy demands of different markets, such as packing, planar testing, or inspection.
Hexapod 6-axis parallel positioning systems are instrumental to fast SiP alignment due to their lower inertia, improved dynamics, smaller package size and higher stiffness, and programmable pivot point.
Microscopy Imaging and Bio-Nanotechnology Solution Packages
Researchers require the sub-atomic resolution and extreme responsiveness of piezo stages and nanopositioners to create higher-quality images faster. PI provides a large variety of fast XY (Z) stages and collar piezo objective positioners for 3D imaging (Z-stack acquisition), deconvolution, and fast auto-focusing applications. A line of ultra-stable long-travel microscope stages with self-locking piezo motors is also available. Read more about this technology’s uses at PI’s blog.
Filed Under: Linear Motion Tips
