Design and Development of Stepper Motor Based XY Scanning Stage

Abstract

ARTICLE INFO Precision planar motion (XY) stages are widely used in semiconductor manufacturing systems, precision machine tools, and scanning probe measurement systems. This paper presents a design, modeling, manufacturing and system interfacing of XY stepper motor based scanning stage for precision application. Serially mounted XY stage is initially modeled using modeling software CATIA V5. Its alignments and stress analysis is carried out by using ANSYS workbench. Once design was within acceptable limit it is further taken for manufacturing and entire XY stage is manufactured. Mounting of stepper is ensured by providing appropriate tolerances during manufacturing. Designed stage consists of two bipolar stepper motor coupled with a lead screw as a feed drive by means of aluminum flexible coupling. These stepper motors are further interfaced with PC via Arduino Microcontroller board. Experimental testing is carried out and orthogonality of axis is ensured by tracing X & Y direction. Orthogonality of axis is within the acceptable limit. To control the movement of XY stage, programming is done with the Arduino software. The accuracy within 10 microns is achieved with this stage for positioning. This XY Scanning Stage finds various precision micro positioning applications such as in 3D printers.