1 LARGE DISPLACEMENT FLEXURE BASED NANO-PRECISION MOTION STAGE FOR VACUUM ENVIRONMENTS

This paper presents a large displacement flexure based high precision motion stage for vacuum-based semiconductor equipment. The weight support mechanism of the motion stage is made of links and flexure joints, and a linear motor is used as the actuator. This stage is not a dual servo stage, but it can provide large motion range of greater than 200mm to support a substrate during semiconductor manufacturing. An over-constrained mechanism is used to incorporate symmetry to cancel out the effects of center shifting in large motion flexures. Experiments are performed to characterize motion straightness and repeatability of the motion stage actuated by a high-resolution linear motor with a laser interferometer providing real-time position feedback. 1