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Piezo motion controller designed for flexibility

A PI (Physik Instrumente) product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team May 23, 2006

PI has developed the world's first PCIbus digital nanopositioning controller for closed-loop piezoelectric positioners and scanners.

PI (Physik Instrumente) introduces the world's first PCI-bus digital nanopositioning controller for closed-loop piezoelectric positioners and scanners.

The new E-761 motion controller is designed to provide more flexibility and better overall value than any other digital piezo controller on the market today.

Many of today's high-tech applications, such as imaging, metrology, scanning microscopy and surface analysis require a combination of high-speed motion control and high-resolution vision.

They also require extremely fast data acquisition and precise synchronisation between the imaging and motion control devices.

Peripheral components with PCIbus interface are ideal for achieving these tasks, because the PCIbus was designed to give high-bandwidth access to the microprocessor in the PC.

PI has now introduced the worlds first commercially available, fully digital piezoelectric nanopositioning controller on a PCI board.

The PCI allows for very fast communication and easy integration with devices such as frame grabbers applications or when operating multiple controllers simultaneously.

The E-761 boasts a high-bandwidth analogue position control input in addition to its PCI interface.

This is ideal for applications where position data are provided in analogue form and for external triggering tasks.

Incorporating a powerful 32bit DSP, the E-761 controllers offers advanced features such as polynomial linearisation and co-ordinate transformation co-ordinate transformation, sensor and actuator axes need not be parallel to each other and rotation can be added to a single module x-y motion system, or tilt errors can be reduced for motion accuracies in the subnanometre range.

The E-761 incorporates highly linear 24bit digital analogue D/A convertors driving four onboard, low-noise piezo drivers, thus eliminating the need for additional external amplifiers.

E-761 digital piezo controllers automatically recognise ID-chip equipped nanopositioning stages and optimise all servo-control parameters accordingly.

In order to achieve the highest degree of linearity over the entire travel range, the E-761 uses a number of innovative techniques: a hardware-based system in the sensor-processing electronics known as ILS (integrated linearisation system) and a firmware-based system that uses polynomial linearisation for the entire electronics and mechanics sections.

The controller comes with a large variety of software tools, LabView drivers and Windows DLLs for easy setup, system optimisation and integration in application-specific programs.

Find out more about this article. Request a brochure, download technical specifications and request samples here.

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