A design is presented for a 6 Degree-of-freedom parallel kinematic precision micro manipulator comprising 3 translations of 20 μm stroke, and three small correction rotation strokes of 5°. The elastic deformations of the manipulator have been optimized for minimal elastic energy storage at a large guiding stiffness. The parallel kinematics facilitates 6 electrostatic lateral comb-drive actuators to be made in-plane of the wafer, using a mechanism to direct the motion to out-of-plane to obtain 6 DOF. One single technology can be used to manufacture the actuators and mechanisms. The fabrication involves deep reactive ion etching with a back-etch release process, offering great design freedom, resulting in a compact design.
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