Design and characterization of a low-profile micropositioning stage

This paper discusses the design and characterization of a new, single-axis, low-profile, piezo-driven vertical motion micropositioning stage for use in laser welding applications. A low-profile configuration is attained by mounting the piezo actuator horizontally and using a novel lever arrangement to transfer the horizontal motion of the actuator into the desired vertical motion. An analytical model for the static and dynamic behavior of the stage is presented, along with finite element (FE) modeling verification. A 200 mu m motion-range stage was built, and tests show that the stage has a vertical stiffness of 6.0 N/mu m and a resonance frequency of 364 Hz. The results are in very close agreement to those predicted by the model.