JPH03121339A - Precise positioning device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To precisely move a stage movable section by positioning the center of a drive shoe on a plane which is substantially perpendicular to an arm and which passes through the center axis of a feed screw shaft. CONSTITUTION:Since the center of a drive shoe 7 is positioned on a plane which is perpendicular to an arm 5 and which passes through the center axis P of a feed screw 9, the arm 5 which is pressed by the rotation of the feed screw 9 gives substantially no affect to the movement of a movable part 4b in a predetermined direction. Further, there is no risk such that the slide of the arm is affected by the straightness of a guide surface of a half V-guide, as is conventionally experienced. Accordingly, due to the provision of the arm 5, there is no risk such that a lead or a lag in the movement of the movable part 4b is produced at every revolution of the feed screw shaft 9. Accordingly, the movable part 4b is rectilinearly and proportionally moved in the predetermined direction so that a stage movable part 4a can be precisely moved. Thereby it is possible to precisely move a stage movable part.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a precision positioning device used, for example, to align the optical axes of two optical fibers.

[Conventional technology]

In recent years, there has been a need to align the optical axes of two optical fibers in the field of optical communications, and precision positioning devices have been developed for use in such cases. This precision positioning device has come to be used not only in the field of optical communications mentioned above, but also in various fields such as optical equipment, semiconductors, and ultra-precision processing. In response to demands in such various fields, precision positioning devices are required to have even higher performance in terms of characteristics such as resolution, positioning accuracy, and reproducibility. Therefore, as a precision positioning device that meets such requirements, a device as shown in FIG. 7, for example, has been proposed (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 106457/1983).

In FIG. 7, the leaf spring 101 consists of a reference platform 102 and a movable platform 103 movable with respect to the reference platform 102. The movable platform 103 has a stage movable section 103a at the center and a movable section 103b at the periphery. An arm 104 is disposed perpendicularly to the leaf spring 101, and is connected to a movable portion 103b, and a drive shoe 105 and a guide shoe 106 are integrally attached to the arm 104. There is.

The threaded portion of the drive shoe 105 is threadedly engaged with a feed screw shaft 107 that is loosely inserted into the arm 104, and this feed screw shaft 107 is connected to the knob 110 via a reduction gear train such as a gear wheel 108 and a gear pinion 109. ing.

The arm 104 is an anti-rotation par 111a, 1
llb, and therefore the arm 104
The drive shoe 105 and guide shoe 106, which are housed integrally in the
It is pressed by a half-V guide bar 112 having a guide surface of 1, and is further pressed by a feed screw shaft 107.

When the knob 110 is turned, the feed screw shaft 107 is rotated, the arm 104 is activated in the axial direction of the feed screw shaft 107 via the drive shoe 105, and the movable part 103
b is moved in the direction of arrow A. When the movable part 103b is moved, the leaf spring 101 is moved by the lever principle, so this mechanism moves the stage movable part 103a with a resolution of 0401 μm to the same arrow A.
moving in the direction.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, in such a conventional precision positioning device, the threaded portion 107a of the feed screw shaft 107 is formed by subjecting this cylindrical shaft to a thread grinding process in a separate process, so that the center of the threaded portion 107a is aligned with the shaft. It was one centimeter away from the center. In this way, the threaded part 10
When the drive shoe 7a is formed face-centered on the feed screw shaft 107, the drive shoe 105 that is threadedly engaged with the threaded portion 107a moves as the feed screw shaft 107 rotates, as shown in FIG.

By the way, as shown in FIG. 7, the guide shoe 106 is in contact with and fixed to the half V guide 112. Therefore, the arm 104 as a whole is swung in the direction of arrow B around the guide shoe 106. When the arm 104 swings in the direction of the arrow B, the movable part 103b, which is moved by the arm 104 in the direction of the arrow B, advances or lags every rotation of the feed screw shaft 107 in its movement. Therefore, the movable portion 103b is linearly proportional (
As a result, the stage movable section 103a cannot be moved accurately and precisely.

As a result, this device can be used in the field of optical communications to achieve two
There was a problem in that even if an attempt was made to align the optical axis of the optical fiber of the book accurately and precisely, the alignment would not be possible.

On the other hand, when the knob 110 is turned, the feed screw shaft 107 is rotated, and the arm 104 is activated in the axial direction of the feed screw shaft 107 via the drive shoe 105. 105 and guide shoe 106 as half V guide 1
The kite is brought into contact with the 12 guide surfaces 112a.

Therefore, the activity of the arm 104 is affected by the straightness of the guide surface 112a of the half-V guide 112.

By the way, since this device requires a resolution of 0.01 μm, the kite surface 112a must have a straightness that corresponds to this high-precision resolution. It is not easy to machine the surface 112a, and therefore, the kite surface 112a often cannot have a high straightness that corresponds to high-precision resolution. Then, the drive shoe 105 is attached to this guide surface 112a.
and arm 1 activated via guide shoe 106
04 will also swing due to this guide surface 112a.

Therefore, even if the guide surface 112a does not have high straightness, the movable portion 103b can move the arm 104 in the same manner as described above.
As a result, the stage movable portion 103a cannot be moved linearly and proportionally in the direction of arrow A, and as a result, the stage movable portion 103a cannot be moved accurately and precisely. As a result, due to the synergistic effect with the above reasons, it becomes increasingly difficult to align the optical axes of the two optical fibers accurately and precisely.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to solve such problems, in the present invention,
An arm for moving a movable part in a predetermined direction, a drive shoe integrally attached to this arm, a kite shoe for guiding the activity of the arm, and a kite shoe that is threadedly engaged with a threaded portion of the drive shoe to activate the arm. In a precision positioning device having a feed screw shaft arranged in parallel with the arm, the drive shoe is placed on a surface that is substantially perpendicular to the arm and passes through the axis of the feed screw shaft. The structure is such that the center is located.

[For production]

As described above, the threaded portion of the feed screw shaft is formed by subjecting the cylindrical shaft to thread grinding in a separate process, so the center of this threaded portion is inevitably eccentric from the center of the shaft.

Therefore, the drive shoe, which is threaded into the threaded portion of the feed screw shaft, is swung by the rotation of the feed screw shaft. When the drive shoe is swung, the arm is swung in the same direction. However, since the direction in which the arm swings is different from the conventional direction, even if the arm swings in this direction, the movable part is not affected by the direction of movement.

Next, since the conventional half-V kite is no longer necessary, the arm will no longer swing due to the guide surface that does not allow for high straightness.

In addition, the number of parts can be reduced and the process of precision machining the guide surface can be omitted.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained based on the drawings. 1 to 6 are diagrams showing an embodiment of a precision positioning device according to the present invention.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 indicates a leaf spring, and this leaf spring 1
It consists of a reference platform 2 and a movable platform 4 which is connected to this reference platform 2 via an elastic strip 3 and is movable relative thereto. The movable platform 4 has a stage movable part 4a in the center,
It has a movable part 4b at the periphery. When the movable part 4b is moved in the direction of arrow A in the figure, the plate spring 1 has a movement M reduction mechanism based on the lever principle, so that the stage movable part 4a
is moved in the same direction of arrow A with a resolution of 0.01 μm.

As shown in FIG.
A drive shoe 7 and a guide shoe 8 are integrally attached to the arm 5 via a support member 6 of the arm 5.

The drive shoe 7 is formed with a threaded portion 7a as shown in FIG. 3, while the guide shoe 8 is cylindrical all around as shown in FIG.

The screw portion 7a of the drive shoe 7 is arranged in parallel with the arm 5,
Threaded portion 9a of feed screw shaft 9 into which support member 6 is loosely fitted
As shown in FIG. 6, the drive shoe 7 is substantially perpendicular to the arm 5, and its center 7b lies on a plane Q passing through the axis P of the feed screw shaft 9. positioned.

The guide shoe 8, which is housed in the arm 5 via the support member 6, is in contact with the peripheral wall surface 9b of the feed screw shaft 9. Further, a feed screw shaft 9 is loosely fitted into the support member 6 of the arm 5, and as shown in FIG. 6a is formed, and a pressure pad 21 as one stage of biasing and a compression spring 22 are housed, and the contact surface 6a is brought into contact with the peripheral wall surface 9b of the feed screw shaft 9 due to the biasing force of the compression spring 22. . Therefore, the arm 5 abuts and contacts the peripheral wall surface 9b of the feed screw shaft 9 not only through the guide shoe 8 but also through the contact surface 6a, so that it is reliably guided and activated along the peripheral wall surface 9b. .

On the other hand, since the guide shoe 8, which is attached to the arm 5 via the support member 6, is in contact with the peripheral wall surface 9b of the feed screw shaft 9, the activity of the arm 5 is
As shown in FIG. , 12
b is pushed toward the left in the figure via the fat reduction spring 13. The slanted drive shoe 7 and guide shoe 8 are pressed against the feed screw shaft 9, and the threaded portion 7
The backlash of a and 9a is eliminated. As shown in FIG. 1, the pressed feed screw shaft 9 is supported by a pair of groove-type flat bearings 23a, 23b on the opposite side of the anti-rotation pars 12a, 12b so as to resist the pressing force. .

As shown in FIG. 1, a gear wheel 13 is fixed to the feed screw shaft 9, a gear binion 15 fixed to a drive shaft 14 meshes with the gear wheel 13, and a knob 16 and an encoder 17 are fixed to the drive shaft 14. ing. knob 1
The rotational force applied to the drive shaft 6 is reduced in speed and transmitted to the feed screw shaft 9 via a reduction gear train such as a gear pinion 15 and a gear wheel 13. The end face of the feed screw shaft 9 is pressed against a bearing 19 by an axial spring 18, so that backlash of the feed screw shaft 9 in the axial direction is eliminated. Note that the feed screw shaft 9 may be driven by a motor instead of the knob 16.

By the way, as mentioned above, the threaded portion 9a of the feed screw shaft 9 is formed by thread-grinding a cylindrical shaft in a separate process, so the center of the threaded portion 9a is inevitably centripetal from the center of the shaft. It will end up being put away.

The drive shoe 7, which is threadedly engaged with the threaded portion 9a of the feed screw shaft 9, swings in the direction of the arrow iY as the feed screw shaft 9 rotates, as shown in FIG. When the drive shoe 7 is pressed in the direction of the arrow, the arm 5 moves in the direction of the same arrow against the biasing force of the compression spring 13.

The reason why the movable portion 4b advances or lags in its movement for each rotation of the feed screw shaft 9 is due to the rocking motion applied in the direction of movement in the direction of arrow A in FIG. That is, when a swinging component acts on the arm 5 in the Sy direction as shown in conventional FIG.
B is influenced by advancing or falling. However, in the present invention, the swing acting on the arm 5 is in the conventional direction Sx in FIG. 8, so even if the arm 5 moves in this direction, the movable part 4b cannot move in the direction of arrow A. The stage movable section 4a, which can move with a resolution of 0.01 μm, is not affected either.

Next, since the conventional half-V guide is no longer necessary, the arm 5 will no longer swing due to the guide surface that does not provide high straightness.

In addition, the number of parts can be reduced and the process of precision machining the guide surface can be omitted. Therefore, knob 1
6, the movable part 4b is linearly moved in the direction of the arrow (linearity), and the stage movable part 4
a will be moved accurately and precisely. the result,
For example, when this device is used in the field of optical communications, the optical axes of two optical fibers can be aligned accurately and precisely.

The drive shoe 7 is substantially perpendicular to the arm 5, and its center 7b is positioned on a plane Q passing through the axis P of the feed screw shaft 9, or the swinging motion acting on the arm 5 is different from the conventional one. Since a corresponding effect can be obtained if the direction is approximately Sx in , the above-mentioned positional relationship does not have to be strict.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, the center of the drive shoe is located on a plane that is perpendicular to the arm and passes through the axis of the feed screw shaft. The arm pressed by rotation has little effect on the movement of the movable part in a predetermined direction. In addition, the swing of this arm is not affected by the straightness of the guide surface of the half kite as in the past. The movable part is linearly and proportionally moved in a predetermined direction (linearity is improved) without any delay or advance, and the stage movable part can be moved accurately and precisely. the result,
For example, when this device is used in the field of optical communications, the optical axes of two optical fibers can be aligned accurately and precisely.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1 to 7 are views showing one embodiment of a precision positioning device according to the present invention, in which FIG. 1 is an overall perspective view of this device, FIG. 2 is a side view of this arm, FIG. Figures 4 and 5 are cross-sectional views taken along the ■-■ line and ■-I in Figure 2, respectively.
A sectional view taken along the line V, a sectional view taken along the line V-V, and FIG. 6 are views showing the positional relationship of the drive shoe with respect to the feed screw shaft. 7 and 8 are diagrams showing a conventional precision positioning device. FIG. 7 is an overall perspective view of this device, and FIG. 8 is a diagram showing displacement applied to a drive shoe. 1... Leaf spring 2... Reference platform 3... Elastic strip 4... Movable platform

Claims (1)

[Claims] An arm that moves a movable part in a predetermined direction, a drive shoe that is integrally attached to this arm, a guide shoe that guides the movement of the arm, and a threaded portion of the drive shoe that engages with the threaded part of the drive shoe to move the arm. In a precision positioning device having a feed screw shaft arranged in parallel with the arm, the drive shoe is positioned on a surface that is substantially perpendicular to the arm and passes through the axis of the feed screw shaft. A precision positioning device characterized by positioning the center.