SCAN-Lab Technical Notes 07: M470 positioner : how high resolution and high accuracy are achieved

Introduction

There is a lot of misunderstanding in the scanning probe market regarding high accuracy and high-resolution long scan range positioning systems. It is usually thought that using piezoelectric drives unfailingly means that high resolution and high accuracy are achieved. This is a rather simplified view of the picture. The aim of the present note is to give a few technical elements to help understand the critical aspects of positioning. There are roughly two groups of components in a scanning stage: The mechanical parts (moving device, stage head, drive) The position measurement and control device. This means that the drive is only one way of action that can be used to achieve high precision positioning. In this note, firstly we present the other aspects to account for when trying to reach high precision and how they were optimized in the M470. Secondly, we present some results that illustrate and prove the technical points made herein.