Development of a Compact Three-Degree-of-Freedom Laser Measurement System with Self-Wavelength Correction for Displacement Feedback of a Nanopositioning Stage

Abstract

This paper presents a miniature three-degree-of-freedom laser measurement (3DOFLM) system for displacement feedback and error compensation of a nanopositioning stage. The 3DOFLM system is composed of a miniature Michelson interferometer (MMI) kit, a wavelength corrector kit, and a miniature autocollimator kit. A low-cost laser diode is employed as the laser source. The motion of the stage can cause an optical path difference in the MMI kit so as to produce interference fringes. The interference signals with a phase interval of 90° due to the phase control are detected by four photodetectors. The wavelength corrector kit, based on the grating diffraction principle and the autocollimation principle, provides real-time correction of the laser diode wavelength, which is the length unit of the MMI kit. The miniature autocollimator kit based on the autocollimation principle is employed to measure angular errors and compensate induced Abbe error of the moving table. The developed 3DOFLM system was constructed with dimensions of 80 mm (x) × 90 mm (y) × 20 mm (z) so that it could be embedded into the nanopositioning stage. A series of calibration and comparison experiments were carried out to test the performance of this system.

Phase Imbalance Optimization in Interference Linear Displacement Sensor with Surface Gratings

“…At the last step, before interpolation and determination of displacement, correction of residual ellipticity is carried out, if it is not eliminated in the optical branch, as well as for the correction of random phase deviations in real time. The signal errors depending on the positioning of elements in the optical system in accordance with Abbe errors [24,25] is not the subject of the current research, although it is very important in the practical realization. The Abbe errors need to be aligned in the scheme to avoid interference break in the plane of the photodetectors, where it is necessary to provide an interference strip of infinite wide.…”

Special Issue on Precision Dimensional Measurements

“…This part includes incremental distance interferometer, absolute distance interferometer and grating diffraction interferometer. For the miniaturization of laser interferometer, a compact laser diode-based interferometer was developed by Cai et al of Dalian University of Technology [20]. The wavelength cannot be determined by the Edlén Equation, which is mainly used for He-Ne lasers.…”

Error Analysis and Compensation of a Laser Measurement System for Simultaneously Measuring Five-Degree-of-Freedom Error Motions of Linear Stages

“…Linear stages, which are expected to travel along a straight line and precisely stop at some prescribed positions, play a crucial role in the manufacturing field and measurement field [1,2,3,4]. However, due to the manufacturing imperfections and the assembling errors, the linear stage inherits six-degree-of-freedom (six-DOF) error motions, including three linear errors (positioning error, horizontal and vertical straightness errors) and three angular errors (pitch, yaw and roll errors).…”