A piezoelectric stick–slip drive nanopositioner with large velocity under high load

Piezoelectric stick–slip drive nanopositioners are of central importance in in situ SEM nanorobotic systems due to their high precise positioning, large stroke, high speed, and compact structure. However, the output velocity under high load will be seriously influenced. In this paper, a new piezoelectric stick–slip drive nanopositioner with large velocity under high load by introducing the adjust bolts to decouple the driving unit and moving unit is presented. A MATLAB simulation model has been created to optimize the nanopositioner for a certain velocity, and a FEM is used to confirm that the leaf hinge has sufficient stiffness. The size of the prototype is 30 × 32 × 25 mm3. Testing results indicate that the nanopositioner achieves a maximum velocity of 3.467 mm/s and a minimum resolution of 6 nm. When the load increases from 0.4 kg to 2 kg, the maximum velocities only decrease from 3.457 mm/s to 3.143 mm/s. The proposed piezoelectric stick–slip nanopositioner shows large velocity under high load.