Investigation of a 1-DOF piezoelectric micro-positioning rotary stage

Electromagnetic motors are extensively used as actuators for high-precision rotary positioning applications; however, they can no longer satisfy continuously increasing new technical requirements, including (but not limited to) those for compactness, simple structures, high precision, and low manufacturing costs. A continuous study of a 1-DOF piezoelectric micro-positioning rotary stage, which was previously proposed by the authors and is characterised by the aforementioned criteria, is reported in this paper. The rotary stage is driven by the interaction between a cylinder-type piezoelectric transducer and a rotor, utilising resonant ultrasonic standing-wave vibrations. The results demonstrate an acceptable correspondence between the detailed numerical and experimental harmonic and modal analyses of the piezoelectric cylinder. Investigations of the motion trajectories of the contact zones and driving tips in the XZ plane indicate the suitability of the selected operational vibration mode to provide a well-defined motion of the rotary stage. The average resolution of the rotary stage is determined to be 0.25 μrad and 0.26 μrad in the clockwise and anticlockwise direction, respectively.