Alio launches ‘world’s first and only’ 6 degrees-of-freedom nano-positioner

Alio Industries has launched what it claims to be the “world’s first and only 6 degrees-of-freedom nano-positioner with 60 degrees tip and tilt travel.

Alio Industries says the 60-degree tip/tilt travel of its Angulares Hybrid Hexapod is “by far the most angular travel range available from any 6-degrees-of-freedom positioner on the market”.

The Angulares features precision crossed roller bearing guides, optical incremental or absolute encoder feedback on all axes, linear motor and/or servo ball screw drives, unlimited programmable tool center point locations and coordinate offsets, and zero backlash on all axes.

Nano-positioners are used in super-resolution microscopy, metrology, nanolithography, interferometry, and imaging, among others, for highly accurate positioning of samples and objects.

The design makes the Angulares capable of unlimited XY travel, Z travel for 62 mm which can be increased to 208 mm using other tripod models, tip/tilt travel of 60 degrees (+/- 30 degrees) with continuous 360 degree Theta-Z, XYZ bidirectional repeatability of less than +/- 0.6 arc-seconds, velocity up to 100 mm/second XY and Z, and less than 10 nanometers linear and 0.1 arc-seconds angular minimum incremental motion.

The Hybrid Hexapod was developed by Alio Industries to address the inherent performance limitations of conventional hexapods.

Alio’s patented 6-DoF design seamlessly blends and takes advantage of the strengths of serial and parallel kinematic structures while avoiding their weaknesses.

The Hybrid Hexapod offers far greater functional versatility, nanometer-level accuracy, repeatability, and superior 6-DoF trajectories than is possible with any traditional hexapod or stacked stage configuration.