Why would I want to use a Flexure Based Positioner?
There are three “traditional” technologies used in motion positioners dovetails, ball bearings, and roller bearings. Each of these technologies have their respective strengths (e.g.: high load capability, long travel), however, they all have varying degrees of friction and stiction. This fundamental property causes wobble, hysteresis, and/or backlash, and an uncertainty in reproducibility limiting their practical usefulness to precision of 0.1 mm at best. Conversely, because of the, strictionless nature of a flexure based positioner, precision on the order of 1 nm are readily achievable. Also, because of the stiffness of a flexure design, maintaining a specific position is greatly enhanced. This sort of high precision and stiffness are mandatory in applications requiring (100 nm accuracy such as single mode fiber optic alignments integrated optics and pig tailing.
