Flexure based stages are particularly important for vacuum applications because they combine low hysteresis, no wear and no contamination with a high supporting stiffness. However, flexure hinges inherently lose stiffness in supporting directions when deflected. Therefore the workspace to footprint ratio is limited. In this article we present the design and modeling of a two degrees of freedom cross flexure based stage that combines a large workspace to footprint ratio with high vibration mode frequencies. Because the mechanism is an assembly of optimized components, the stage is designed according to the exact constraint principle to avoid build-up of internal stresses due to misalignment. FEM results have been validated by measurements on an experimental test setup. The test setup has a workspace-area to footprint ratio of 1/32. The lowest measured natural frequency with locked actuators over a 60 × 60mm workspace was 80Hz.

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We present the exact constraint design of a two degrees of freedom cross-flexure-based stage that combines a large workspace to footprint ratio with high vibration mode frequencies. To maximize unwanted vibration mode frequencies the mechanism is an assembly of optimized parts. To ensure a deterministic behavior the assembled mechanism is made exactly constrained. We analyze the kinematics of the mechanism using three methods; Grüblers criterion, opening the kinematic loops, and with a multibody singular value decomposition method. Nine release-flexures are implemented to obtain an exact constraint design. Measurements of the actuation force and natural frequency show no bifurcation, and load stiffening is minimized, even though there are various errors causing nonlinearity. Misalignment of the exact constraint designs does not lead to large stress, it does however decrease the support stiffness significantly. We conclude that designing an assembled mechanism in an exactly constrained manner leads to predictable stiffnesses and modal frequencies.

In this paper, we present a method to align optical fibers within 0.2 μm of the optimal position, using tube laser bending and in situ measuring of the coupling efficiency. For near-UV wavelengths, passive alignment of the fibers with respect to the waveguides on photonic integrated circuit chips does not suffice. In prior research, it was shown that permanent position adjustments to an optical fiber by tube laser bending meets the accuracy requirements for this application. This iterative alignment can be done after any assembly steps. A method was developed previously that selects the optimal laser power and laser spot position on the tube, to minimize the number of iterations required to reach the target position. In this paper, that method is extended to the case where the absolute position of the fiber tip cannot be measured. By exploiting the thermal expansion motion at a relatively low laser power, the fiber tip can be moved without permanent deformation (only elastic strain) of the tube. An algorithm has been developed to search for the optimal fiber position, by actively measuring and maximizing the coupling efficiency. This search is performed before each bending step. Experiments have shown that it is possible to align the fiber with an accuracy of 0.2 μm using this approach.

The scientific output of this research was published in various journals and was presented at an international conference: Journals