Closed-loop nanopositioner is world's smallest

A closed loop, piezo stepper driven, nanopositioning system, which is extremely stiff and is therefore ideal for nanomanipulation within limited space, is claimed to be the world's smallest.

The SL-1720-S model is claimed by Armstrong Optical of Northampton, UK to be the world's smallest closed loop nanopositioning system.

It is the latest in a series of piezo stepper drive systems developed by SmarAct of Germany.

The world's smallest long-travel nanopositioner, the SLC-1720-S, has dimensions of 21x17x8.5mm3.

It includes an integrated optical encoder.

Armstrong Optical told manufacturingtalk.com that the positioner is extremely stiff and is therefore ideal for nanomanipulation within limited space.

It offers 12mm of travel, sub-nanometer resolution of movement and encoder resolution of 5nm.

The integrated sensor provides feedback for closed-loop positioning control.

As with the other piezo-systems available from SmarAct the SLC-1720-S can be very simply incorporated with other linear and rotary stages to offer complete micro- and nanomanipulation systems.

All SmarAct systems are 'open architecture' types that allow simple manual or automated control.

The user can either use the SmarAct Hand Control Module, or include the SmarAct Windows DLL or LabVIEW-driver into its application.

For a quick start, simple GUI and LabVIEW examples are provided.

In addition to simply supplying the separate linear and rotary stages Armstrong Optical offer a complete design support for all micro- and nano-scale movement and manipulation tasks.

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