Review on Multi-Degree-of-Freedom Piezoelectric Motion Stage

Multi-degree-of-freedom (multi-DOF) piezoelectric motion stage is an important part of modern manufacturing industry. In order to perform high precision outputs in a large travel range, various multi-DOF piezoelectric motion stages have been proposed and applied for decades. This paper is concentrated on reviewing the research on a piezoelectric motion stage. It involves the major components, operating principles of different actuation modes, design schemes, and structures of the multi-DOF piezoelectric motion stages. In this paper, the summary and classification of the actuation modes used in the multi-DOF piezoelectric motion stages are presented, mainly including the resonance actuation mode, inertial actuation mode, clamping and feeding actuation mode, and direct actuation mode; the multi-DOF piezoelectric motion stage is divided into multi-actuator type and single-actuator type according to the number of actuators used in the motion stage, in which the multi-actuator type includes series, parallel, and series-parallel types from the viewpoint of structure mechanism; in addition, the output performances of the stages are compared, and the state of the arts of the stages are discussed and summarized; the further efforts and future research perspectives are highlighted.