JP6248350B2 - Precision tilt stage - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a precision tilt stage in which a stage is supported by a support and is bent by a drive member provided separately.

  Currently, in the precision measurement field such as three-dimensional measurement, a structure in which the stage side on which the object to be measured is placed is tilted is used, which has the effect of increasing the degree of freedom of measurement and improving the measurement accuracy. Many of the structures are configured by combining a support member having a hinge with a drive member that expands and contracts such as a piezoelectric element. As representative examples of the prior art, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 05-304323 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 1) and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 09-285146 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 2) has been filed and published.

  Of these two cases, the structure described in Patent Document 1 has a technical feature of a displacement magnifying mechanism in which a column is provided at the center of the stage, and selects a stiffness value for angular displacement by changing the thickness of the displacement adjustment unit. It is possible. Further, in the structure described in Patent Document 2, reliability is improved in use in a scanning probe microscope by connecting a fixed portion and a stage with a cylindrical piezoelectric element that can be deformed in two axial directions and a rigid support member with a hinge. The effect is obtained.

JP 05-304323 A JP 09-285146 A

  While having the effects described above, in recent years, in the field of precision press and the like, there is a demand for pressurization and molding in a state where a fine angle is given to a pressurization target. When used as an angle adjusting mechanism used for such processing, the displacement enlarging mechanism described in Patent Document 1 has a problem in that it cannot independently adjust the angle in the three-dimensional direction due to its structure. Regarding the structure, it is difficult to maintain durability and processing accuracy associated with the processing because of the shape of the hinge described in the drawings. In addition, since the structure described in Patent Document 2 is provided with a plurality of rigid strut members, there is a problem that stress continues to concentrate on a specific strut during processing in the state where the angle is maintained. Improvement in size and downsizing cannot be performed at the same time.

In order to solve the above-described problems, the invention described in the present application aims to provide a precision tilt stage that is small in size and has a high load resistance, but can be operated with high precision even at high loads.

  For the above purpose, the first aspect in the present application is characterized in that a lateral angular groove is cut out on a side surface of a support column provided at the center of the stage. More specifically, as a basic structure of the precision tilt stage described above, a groove perpendicular to the displacement direction of the stage is provided on the side surface of the column provided in the center of the stage, and the bottom surface of the groove is parallel to the opposite surface. In addition, its technical feature is that it is formed perpendicular to the stage surface.

Further, the second aspect of the present invention is characterized in that the square grooves are provided at different heights at right angles.

  With the technical features described above, the invention described in the present application can provide a precision tilt stage that is small in size and has a high load resistance, but can be operated with high accuracy even during high loads. Moreover, the said effect is provided by the structure which notched the said square groove. More specifically, by cutting a square groove in the column in the center of the stage where stress during processing is concentrated, a pair of wall surfaces are formed parallel to the front and back, and high-precision tilt measurement is performed by stretching the wall surface, While maintaining a fine inclination in units of several μm, which is 5 μm or less, the processing with the high load is enabled.

  That is, in the present invention, the square groove portion functions as a hinge portion. For this reason, when the stage is tilted by an actuator such as a piezoelectric element, a bending stress is generated along the groove direction in the plate-like hinge portion having a uniform thickness, and the fine tilt can be maintained with high accuracy. It becomes. Further, when the plate-like hinge portion receives a load during processing such as the precision press, the vertical load applied to the support column by the press processing is dispersed throughout the hinge portion. As a result, the structure according to the present invention suppresses stress concentration due to the load, and can maintain high durability even during the processing in which repeated stress is applied at a high load. In addition, by providing the support column at the center of the stage, the support column is configured to receive most of the repeated stress of high load acting in the vertical direction along the support column, and there is no need to provide an auxiliary support column. The structure can be small.

  Furthermore, in this invention, it can be set as the structure where the plate-shaped hinge part formed of a parallel wall surface curves uniformly by providing a hinge part in the said support | pillar. More specifically, with respect to a support column made of a rigid material such as SUS material, by providing the hinge part, only a part of the support column can be deformed, and the hinge part is configured in a plate shape. This makes it possible to apply the bending stress by the actuator uniformly. As a result, the precision tilt stage according to the present invention can align the bending stress of the column in the groove direction and maintain the deformation direction when tilted with high accuracy.

  Further, in the present invention, the support is made of a rigid material, so that the hinge portion is always deformed with respect to the tilt of the stage. For this reason, by attaching sensor elements such as strain gauges to the pair of wall surfaces, it is possible to control the tilt with high accuracy by the displacement output of the hinge part that is only deformable. In addition, by providing the sensor element in each hinge portion, the sensor is built in, and the effect of saving space is also obtained.

  In addition, by using the second aspect of the present application, the precision tilt stage described in the present invention can provide the above-described effect with respect to tilt in the XY directions. That is, in this aspect, the hinge portions are provided orthogonally, so that deformation in the twisting direction is suppressed in each hinge portion. More specifically, by providing the hinge portions in the orthogonal direction, the stresses generated from the actuators in which the respective plate-like hinge portions are provided corresponding to the hinge portions are orthogonal to the deformation directions. For this reason, it becomes possible to incline the said stage to arbitrary directions, without producing the twisting stress of a rotation direction by using this aspect. The precision tilt stage according to the present invention has the support column at the center. For this reason, the rigidity of the support | pillar which reduces by using this aspect can be easily supplemented by the cross-sectional area expansion of a support | pillar only. In addition, by arranging the deformation direction, the sensors provided in the hinge portions in the XY directions always have a structure that detects only displacement in one direction, and the effect of simplification of control by improving the independence of the axis is also achieved. Can be granted.

As described above, by using the structure described in the claims of the present application, it is possible to provide a precision tilt stage that is small in size and has a high load resistance, but can be operated with high accuracy even during high loads.

The whole perspective view of the precision inclination stage used in the best embodiment of the present invention 1 is an exploded perspective view of a precision tilt stage used in the best embodiment of the present invention. Operation explanatory diagram of precision tilt stage used in the best mode of the present invention

  Hereinafter, the best embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 1, FIG. 2, and FIG. In addition, about the symbol and component number in a figure, the common symbol or number is provided to what functions as the same component.

  FIG. 1 is an overall perspective view of a precision tilt stage used in the present embodiment, FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view thereof, and FIG. 3 is an operation explanatory diagram of FIG. Note that the strain gauge in FIG. 2, the wiring of the actuator and strain gauge in FIG. 1, FIG. 2, and FIG. 3, and the control mechanism are not shown in the figure.

  As can be seen from FIGS. 1 and 2, in this embodiment, the stage 1, the column T, and the pedestal B are integrally formed of a SUS material, and the stage is formed with respect to the columnar column side surface H provided in the center of the stage. Two lateral square grooves D that are parallel to the surface are formed at two different positions perpendicular to each other. Further, in the present embodiment, the stage surface S is configured as a 50 mm square plane, and the stage surface S is tilted by the longitudinal expansion and contraction force output from the displacement expansion mechanism 2 having a lever-type structure driven by the piezoelectric element 2. It has a structure. The displacement when tilted is fixed to the hinge portion W formed by the groove portion D, and is controlled based on the measured value of the strain gauge 4 that measures the displacement in the vertical direction. By using such a basic structure, the precision tilt stage described in the present embodiment can be precision pressed using the stage surface S with each movable range of 3 μm on the XY axes and a load resistance of 500 N.

  That is, as shown in FIG. 3, in the present embodiment, only the hinge portion W can be deformed by providing the square groove portion D. For this reason, when the stage surface S is tilted by the actuator, a bending stress F aligned in the groove direction d is generated on the plate-like hinge portion W having a uniform thickness, and the fine tilt is maintained with high accuracy. Is possible. Further, when the plate-like hinge portion W receives a load during the precision press working, the vertical load applied to the support is dispersed throughout the hinge portion. Here, in the present embodiment, the hinge portion W is configured by a square groove, thereby preventing an uneven bending stress generated when the hinge portion W is configured by a round groove. For this reason, the structure according to the present invention can suppress the concentration of stress due to the load and maintain high durability even during the processing in which repeated stress is applied at a high load. In addition, by integrating the column at the center of the stage, the column has a structure in which most of the repeated stress of high load acting in the vertical direction along the column T is received by the column alone. The structure can be used for durability.

  Furthermore, in this embodiment, regarding the hinge part W provided on the support column, a plate-like hinge part W formed by parallel wall surfaces is bent uniformly. More specifically, by providing the groove portion D in the support column T, only the hinge portion W that is a part of the support column is made deformable, and when the fine inclination is applied, the bending stress F by the actuator is changed. It has become possible to act uniformly on the hinge W. Accordingly, the precision tilting stage of the present embodiment aligns the bending stress F of the column in the groove direction d, and can maintain the tilted displacement with high accuracy even under the stress. Further, as described above, in the present embodiment, the support T and the base B are integrally formed on the stage 1 with the SUS material, so that the hinge portion W is always deformed with respect to the inclination of the stage 1. For this reason, by attaching the strain gauge 4 to the hinge portion W composed of the pair of wall surfaces, it is possible to control the tilt with high accuracy by the displacement output of the hinge portion W that is only deformable. In addition, since the strain gauge 4 is provided in each hinge portion D, the sensor is built in, and the effect of saving the overall space is also obtained.

  In the precision tilt stage described in this embodiment, the above-described effect is imparted with respect to tilt in the XY directions. That is, by providing the grooves D orthogonally, the stress F received from each actuator by the hinge W formed by each groove D is orthogonal to the deformation direction. For this reason, the support column described in the present embodiment can tilt the stage 1 in an arbitrary direction without generating a twisting stress in the rotational direction of the hinge portion W. In this embodiment, the support column T is provided at the center of the stage. For this reason, when it is necessary to use a higher load, the load resistance can be easily improved by expanding the cross-sectional area of the column T or the like. In addition, by arranging the deformation directions, the strain gauges 4 provided in the grooves in the X and Y directions always have a structure that detects only displacement in one direction, and the control can be simplified by improving the independence of the axis. It was.

As described above, by using the structure described in the embodiment of the present application, it is possible to provide a precision tilt stage that is small in size and has a high load resistance, but can be operated with high accuracy even at high loads.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Stage 2 Displacement expansion mechanism 3 Piezoelectric element 4 Strain gauge B Base H Column wall T Column P Column S Stage surface D Groove part d Groove direction W Hinge part F Bending stress

Claims (2)

On the side surface of the column provided upright on the center stage portion, by cutting out the lateral angular groove corners and orthogonally formed constitute a single hinge portion corresponding to the direction, the sensor element and the hinge portion precision tilting stage which is provided to.    The precision tilt stage according to claim 1, wherein the angular grooves are provided orthogonal to different heights.

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