Pages 975-980
This paper deals with AZARASHI (Seal) mechanism with three degrees of freedom for a positioning stage of an atomic force microscope. A driving method for an L-shaped device was improved to reduce the straightness error in the translation motion. When the device moved in the x- or y-direction, the displacement in another orthogonal direction was about 10% and a rotation was observed. The interference in the translation was proportional to the displacement in the driven direction. Both the piezoelectric actuators are extended or contracted simultaneously to cancel out the moment. Then, AZARASHI Mechanism was applied to an AFM stage. A stage consists of an L-shaped device for the x- and y-motions mounting a piezoelectric actuator for the z-motion. A force curve was measured to calibrate the sensitivity. The straightness of the device motion in the z-direction was evaluated by measuring an optical flat.