Mechanical design and development of compact linear nanopositioning flexure stages with centimeter-level travel range and nanometer-level resolution

Nanopositioning techniques present an important capability to support the state-of-the-art synchrotron radiation instrumentation research for the Advanced Photon Source (APS) operations and upgrade project. To overcome the performance limitations of precision ball-bearing-based or roller-bearing-based linear stage systems, two compact linear nanopositiioning flexure stages have been designed and developed at the APS with centimeter-level travel range and nanometer-level resolution for x-ray experimental applications. The APS T8-54 linear flexure stage is designed to perform a precision wire scan as a differential aperture for the 3-D diffraction microscope at the APS sector 34, and the APS T8-56 linear flexure stage is designed for a horizontal sample scanning stage for a hard x-ray microscope at the APS sector 2. Both linear flexure stages are using a similar improved deformation compensated linear guiding mechanism which was developed initially at the APS for the T8-52 flexural linear stage [1,2]. The mechanical design and finite element analyses of the APS T8-54 and T8-56 flexural stages, as well as its initial mechanical test results with laser interferometer are described in this paper.