JPH1038782A - Two-dimensional moving stage - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a two-dimensional moving stage being employed in a hardness meter in which the size is decreased in the direction of height by decreasing the number of components. SOLUTION: Under a state where an X-direction micrometer 5 is fixed at a first position, an X-stage 3 is shifted with respect to a base 2 and positioned. The micrometer 5 is then shifted to a second position and the X-stage 3 is shifted to a position corresponding to the second position. On the other hand, a Y-stage 4 is shifted with respect to the X-stage 3 and positioned under a state where a Y-direction micrometer 10 is fixed at the first position. The micrometer 10 is then shifted to the second position and the Y-stage 4 is shifted to a position corresponding to the second position.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a two-dimensional moving stage such as an XY stage used as a sample stage of a hardness tester.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, in a hardness tester for measuring Vickers hardness, Knoop hardness, etc. of a sample, the sample is placed on an XY stage and positioned while confirming a measurement point at which an indent is formed by an indenter with a microscope. Then, the XY stage is slid to the position of the indenter, and an indent is formed at the measurement point by the indenter. FIG. 6 shows an XY stage used for such a hardness tester. As shown in FIG. 6, an XY stage 50 includes a base 52, a Y-direction slide base 53 slidably provided on a first Y-direction linear bearing 52A formed on the base 52, and a Y-direction slide. First X-direction linear bearing 5 formed on base 53 so as to be orthogonal to Y-direction linear bearing 52A
X direction slide base 54 slidably provided on 3A
A Y stage 55 slidably provided on a second Y direction linear bearing 54A formed on the X direction slide base 54, and a Y stage 55 formed on the Y stage 55 so as to be orthogonal to the Y direction linear bearing 52A. And an X stage 56 slidably provided on the second X-direction linear bearing 55A. The Y stage 55 has an X stage 56
And an X-direction micrometer 60 for measuring the amount of movement is provided.
6 is provided with a Y direction micrometer 61 for moving the Y stage 55 and measuring the amount of movement.

The XY stage configured as described above is used as follows. First, the sample is placed on the X stage 56, and the sample is positioned by moving the X-direction micrometer 60 and the Y-direction micrometer 61.
Determine the measurement points. Then, the Y-direction slide base 53
Is moved with respect to the base 52, or the X-direction slide base 54 is largely moved with respect to the Y-direction slide base 53 to move the sample to a position opposing the indenter. Is formed.

[0004]

However, in a two-dimensional moving stage such as the XY stage described above, in order to move the XY stage, an X-direction slide base, a Y-direction slide base, an X stage and a Y stage are used. Since two members are required, the overall height of the XY stage is increased, and as a result, a hardness meter using the XY stage has been increased in size. Further, since there are many movable parts, the strength of the XY stage has been reduced.

An object of the present invention is to provide a two-dimensional moving stage capable of reducing the number of parts and reducing the height.

[0006]

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention.
Referring to FIG. 4, the invention of claim 1 is based on a base 2 and a first linear bearing 2 provided on the base 2.
A and the first linear bearing 2A on the base 2.
A second linear bearing 2B provided substantially in parallel with
A first stage 3 slidably provided on a first linear bearing 2A on the base 2, and extends in a direction substantially orthogonal to the first linear bearing 2A on the first stage 3. A third linear bearing 3A provided on the first stage 3 and a fourth linear bearing 3B provided substantially in parallel with the third linear bearing 3A. A second stage 4 slidably provided on a third linear bearing 3A, and a second stage 4 slidably provided on a second linear bearing 2B;
In addition, the first stage 3 is provided so as to be fixable at least at the first and second positions, and moves along the first linear bearing 2A while being in contact with the first stage 3; A first measuring means 5 for measuring the displacement of the first stage 3 at the position, a slidably provided at the fourth linear bearing 3B, and a fixed at least at the first and second positions; The second stage 4 is moved along the third linear bearing 3A in contact with the first stage 4 and the first and second stages 4A.
Measuring the displacement of the second stage 4 at the position
The above object is achieved by providing the measuring means 10.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the first stage 3 is moved relative to the base 2 by the first measuring means 5 while the first measuring means 5 is fixed at the first position. Thus, the first stage 3 is positioned. And the first
By moving the measuring means 5 to the second position,
Stage 3 also moves to a position corresponding to the second position to which the first measuring means 5 has moved. On the other hand, the second measuring means 10
Is fixed at the first position, the second stage 4 is moved with respect to the first stage 3 by the second measuring means 10 to position the second stage 4. Then, by moving the second measuring means 10 to the second position, the second stage 4 also moves to a position corresponding to the second position where the second measuring means 10 has moved.

[0008] In the section of the means for solving the above-mentioned problems, which explains the configuration of the present invention, the drawings of the embodiments of the present invention are used to make the present invention easier to understand. However, the present invention is not limited to this.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an XY stage which is an embodiment of a two-dimensional moving stage according to the present invention,
2 is a plan view of FIG. 1, FIG. 3 is a view of FIG.
FIG. 3 is a view in the direction of arrow B in FIG. 2. As shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, the XY stage 1 includes a base 2, an X stage 3 slidably provided on a first X-direction linear bearing 2 </ b> A formed on the base 2, and an X stage 3. And a Y stage 4 slidably provided on a first Y-direction linear bearing 3A formed on the first stage. The X stage 3 and the Y stage 4 are urged in the directions of arrows C and D in FIG. 1 by return springs (not shown), respectively.

The base 2 is formed with a second X-direction linear bearing 2B extending substantially parallel to the first X-direction linear bearing 2A. The second X-direction linear bearing 2B has an X-direction linear bearing 2B. An X-direction micrometer base 6 to which the micrometer 5 is attached is slidably provided. The tip of the X-direction micrometer 5 is in contact with a contact portion 3C protruding from the X stage 3. Thus, the arrow C of the X stage 3 urged in the direction of arrow C
The X stage 3 is reciprocated along the X axis by controlling the movement in the X direction and rotating the X direction micrometer 5.

The X-direction micrometer base 6 is provided with positioning stoppers 7A, 7B. When one of the positioning stoppers 7A, 7B is engaged with a pin 9 provided on the base 2, The X-direction micrometer base 6 is positioned. That is, by engaging the positioning stopper 7B with the pin 9, the X-direction micrometer base 6 is fixed at the position shown in FIG.
When the positioning stopper 7A engages with the pin 9,
The X stage 3 moves to the position 3P indicated by the broken line in FIGS. 2 and 3, and the X-direction micrometer base 6 is fixed.

On the other hand, the X stage 3 is formed with a second Y-direction linear bearing 3B extending substantially parallel to the first Y-direction linear bearing 3A. , Y direction micrometer 10
The Y-direction micrometer base 11 to which is attached is slidably provided. The tip of the Y-direction micrometer 10 is in contact with a contact portion 4C protruding from the Y stage 4. Thus, the movement of the Y stage 4 urged in the direction of arrow D in the direction of arrow D is restricted, and
By rotating the direction micrometer 10, the Y stage 4 reciprocates along the Y axis.

The Y-direction micrometer base 11 is provided with two positioning stoppers 12A and 12B similarly to the X-direction micrometer base 6, and one of the positioning stoppers 12A and 12B is attached to the X stage 3. By engaging a provided pin (not shown),
The Y-direction micrometer base 11 is positioned similarly to the X-direction micrometer base 6. That is, when the positioning stopper 12B engages with the pin, the Y-direction micrometer base 11 is fixed at the position shown in FIG. 2, and when the positioning stopper 12A engages with the pin, the position indicated by the broken line in FIGS. The Y stage 4 moves to 4P, and the Y-direction micrometer base 11 is fixed.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. FIG. 5 is a diagram schematically showing a hardness meter to which the XY stage 1 according to the present embodiment is applied. As shown in FIG. 5, the hardness tester 30 includes a mounting table 3 on which the XY stage 1 is mounted.
1, a hardness meter main body 32, an objective lens 33 and an eyepiece lens 34 provided on the hardness meter main body 32, and an indenter 35 for moving in the vertical direction of FIG. 5 to form an indentation on the sample. . The objective lens 33 and the indenter 35 are provided at a predetermined interval. First, the positioning stopper 7B provided on the X-direction micrometer base 6 is
The X-direction micrometer base 6 and the Y-direction micrometer base 11 are fixed to the base 2 and the X stage 3, respectively, by engaging a positioning stopper 12B provided on the direction micrometer base 11 with the pin. Then, the sample T is placed on the Y stage 4, the surface of the sample T is observed through the eyepiece 34, and the sample T is two-dimensionally rotated by rotating the X-direction micrometer 5 and the Y-direction micrometer 10. Moving.

That is, the tip of the X-direction micrometer 5 contacts the protruding portion 3C of the X-stage 3, and the X-stage 3 is urged in the direction of arrow C in FIG. When you rotate the tip in the extension direction, X
When the stage 3 moves in the negative direction along the X axis and rotates in the direction to return the tip of the X direction micrometer 5, the X stage 3 moves in the positive direction along the X axis due to the urging force of the return spring. . On the other hand, the tip of the Y-direction micrometer 10 abuts the projecting portion 4C of the Y stage 4 and
Is urged in the direction of arrow D in FIG. 2, so that when the tip of the
The stage 4 moves in the positive direction along the Y-axis, and rotates in the direction to return the tip of the micrometer 10 in the Y direction. When the return spring biases, the Y stage 4 moves in the negative direction along the Y-axis. .

After the X stage 3 and the Y stage 4 are moved and the sample T is aligned as described above, the sample T is moved to a position facing the indenter 35. This movement is performed so that the positioning stopper 7A is engaged with the pin 9 by X.
This is performed by moving the directional micrometer base 6 or by moving the Y-directional micrometer base 11 so that the positioning stopper 12A is engaged with the pin. At this time, by setting the distance between the positioning stoppers 7A and 7B and the distance between the positioning stoppers 12A and 12B so as to match the distance between the eyepiece 33 and the indenter 35,
X stage 3 or Y stage 4 is shown in FIG. 3 or FIG.
The sample T moves to the position indicated by the broken line
From the position corresponding to the indenter 35 to the position corresponding to the indenter 35.

The indenter 35 is driven at this position to form an indentation at the measurement point of the sample T, and the test is completed.

As described above, in this embodiment, since the number of components can be reduced as compared with the XY stage shown in FIG. 6, the overall height can be reduced. Accordingly, a device such as a hardness tester using the stage of the present invention can be downsized. Since the number of movable parts between the stages can be reduced, the strength of the entire XY stage can be improved.

In the above embodiment, an example is described in which the two-dimensional moving stage of the present invention is applied to a hardness tester. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the stage is moved two-dimensionally. If so, the present invention can be applied to any object.

In the correspondence between the above embodiment and the claims, the base 2 serves as a base, the first X-direction linear bearing 2A serves as the first linear bearing, and the second X-direction linear bearing 2B serves as the second linear bearing. X stage 3 is the first stage, the first Y-direction linear bearing 3A is the third linear bearing, the second Y-direction linear bearing 3B is the fourth linear bearing, and the Y stage 4 Constitute the second stage, the X-direction micrometer 5 constitutes the first measuring means, and the Y-direction micrometer 10 constitutes the second measuring means.

[0021]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, the number of components can be reduced as compared with a conventional two-dimensional moving stage such as an XY stage, so that the overall height can be reduced. Can be reduced, which
A device such as a hardness tester using the stage of the present invention can be reduced in size. Further, since the number of movable parts between the stages can be reduced, the strength of the entire stage can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a configuration of an XY stage according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a configuration of an XY stage according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a view in the direction of arrow A in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a view taken in the direction of arrow B in FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing a hardness tester to which the XY stage according to the embodiment of the present invention is applied;

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a configuration of a conventional XY stage.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 XY stage 2 Base 3 X stage 3A, 3B X direction linear bearing 4 Y stage 4A, 4B Y direction linear bearing 5 X direction micrometer 6 X direction micrometer base 7A, 7B, 12A, 12B Positioning stopper 9 pin 10 Y direction Micrometer 11 Y-direction micrometer base

Claims (1)

[Claims] A base, a first linear bearing provided on the base, a second linear bearing provided on the base substantially in parallel with the first linear bearing, A first stage slidably provided on the first linear bearing on the base, and extending in a direction substantially orthogonal to the first linear bearing on the first stage; A third linear bearing provided; a fourth linear bearing provided substantially in parallel with the third linear bearing on the first stage; and a third linear bearing provided on the first stage. A second stage slidably provided on the linear bearing; and a second stage slidably provided on the second linear bearing and slidably at least in the first and second positions. First measuring means for abutting on the first stage to move the first stage along the first linear bearing, and for measuring displacement of the first stage at each of the positions; 4 is slidably provided at at least the first and second positions so as to be slidable, and abuts on the second stage to move the second stage along the third linear bearing. A two-dimensional moving stage comprising: a second measuring unit that moves and measures a displacement of the second stage at each of the positions.