Patent DE 10 2021 103 220

The invention relates to an extension of the function of a nanopositioning system developed at IMMS with a planar drive, aerostatic slider guidance and laser interferometric displacement and angle measurement. The (planar) slider is additionally equipped with aerostatically guided actuator systems that allow the slider to be lifted with virtually no power. The horizontal drive force is generated via the fixed-frame flat coils and the co-moving magnets.

The idea of the invention is to track the planar drive coils (flat coils) of the vertical slider movement by lifting them in order to maintain an almost constant distance between the coils and the slider. This allows the range in which nanometre-precise positioning in the vertical direction is possible to be increased from 10 to 25 mm.

The focus is on the measurement, calibration and manipulation/processing of objects such as

• Step height standards and periodic standards for calibration
• Micro components and optical filter elements
• flat optical components, curved mirrors, lenses, lens arrays, Fresnel lenses, spheres and aspheres etc.
• Wafers The invention enables the realisation of large vertical travel ranges of, for example, x, y, z: 200 x 200 x 25 mm³.

The positioning system comprises a stator arranged in an x-y plane, which indirectly carries electric magnetic coils (01). The positioning system also comprises a rotor with permanent magnets arranged above the stator. By energising the magnetic coils (01), forces can be generated on the permanent magnets in order to position the slider in a plane parallel to the x-y plane. The positioning system further comprises at least one positioning actuator located on the stator for positioning the rotor in a z-direction perpendicular to the x-y plane and at least one magnetic coil actuator (11) located on the stator for positioning the magnetic coils (01) in the z-direction. The invention also relates to a method for operating the positioning system according to the invention.