The heart of the motion is a cyclical beating piezo actuator, fast in one direction and slow in the other.The piezo actuator assembly is coupled mechanically to the stage in such a way that the slow motion of the stack pulls the drive rod, but, due to inertia the fast motion allows it to slip.The motor, which always remains stationary, is in contact with the drive rod even when powered down, providing full force self-locking and making the technology ideal for low duty cycle alignment work. The simplicity of the drive in combination with a cost effective design means that the price of Q-Motion stages start at less than you imagine.The PI Q-motion website provides an informative introduction to the technology http://www.q-motion.ws/
The form factor of the new Q-522 linear stage is a width of 22mm, open loop, 32mm closed loop and a height of only 10mm.The length depends upon the travel range, with 6.5mm, 13mm and 26mm requiring 22mm, 32mm and 42mm respectively.The Q-622 series of rotary stages have a footprint of 22mm squared and a height of only 10mm.The compactness of the technology fits well with applications in micro-assembly, optical metrology or where positioning is required within a vacuum.The design also allows the easy integration of linear and rotary stages into multi axis combinations.
Each cycle of the motor generates a step of about 100nm and when operated at extremely high frequency this produces a smooth, continuous motion.Where needed, smaller steps can be generated to control the motion down to a resolution of a few nanometres.
The E-870 series of single and multi-axis drive electronics provide both bench-top and OEM circuit board options for driving and controlling the Q-Motion series.
