Auto-focus stage offers long travel and ultra-fine movements

The compact stage is easily adapted to standard or custom microscope mechanics and is available with a wide range of matching servo drives and motion controls. The Z Axis Auto-Focus Stage assembly combines Nanomotion's innovative standing wave, inverse piezoelectric ceramic motor technology and a high-resolution encoder in a miniature but robust translation stage housing with integral precision bearings and a spring counterbalance. The zero backlash, direct-drive stage features a travel range to 25mm, selectable standard resolution from 10nm to 100nm (with 1nm optional), a wide dynamic speed range (up to 250mm/s) and static loading to 400g.

Nanomotion's ceramic servo motor technology suits the demands of high-speed move-and-settle positioning required by microscope focussing applications, providing a typical focussing move of 1-10um in under 5ms, settling within 100nm. Ultra-fast settling times and the inherent ability to lock the stage's position at rest and under power-off conditions ensure excellent levels of optical stability with minimal thermal drift.

Typical applications for the Z Axis Auto-Focus Stage include managing the demanding high speeds, accelerations and positioning reversals in cell terrain imaging, semiconductor and biomedical microscopy, and on-the-fly focussing. The stage may also be used in a horizontal orientation for step-and-repeat imaging.