Development of a Novel Flexure-Based XY Platform Using Single Bending Hybrid Piezoelectric Actuator

In this article, a novel flexure-based XY platform using a bending hybrid piezoelectric actuator was proposed, which was inspired by a classical piezoelectric stack-actuated platform. First, the stack-actuated platform was designed, the configuration and working principle of the bending hybrid piezo-actuated platform were illustrated. Then, theoretical analyses were conducted to design the piezo-actuated platform, the finite element method was employed for the static and dynamic analyses, and the prototypes of the two platforms were fabricated. Eventually, a series of tests were carried out to verify the theoretical and simulated results, and to investigate and compare their output characteristics. The experimental results revealed that the proposed piezo-actuated platform could achieve a motion range of 16.48 μm × 16.84 μm and the coupling error of less than 0.59%. Furthermore, the hysteresis ratios were about 8.3% and 8.2%, the first-order bending frequencies were 2162 and 2303 Hz in two axes, the displacement resolution was about 4.31 nm, and the steady-state displacement deviations of the point-to-point positioning control both are within ±30 nm in two axes. Compared with the traditional stack-actuated platform, the piezo-actuated platform not only had positive and negative output displacement, but also possessed superior performance, including low cross-coupling, low hysteresis, and high resolution, which was expected to be used in nanopositioning and micro/nanomanipulation.