The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 07, 2019
Filed:
Dec. 16, 2015
The Regents of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (US);
Chinedum E. Okwudire, Ann Arbor, MI (US);
Xin Dong, Ann Arbor, MI (US);
THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, Ann Arbor, MI (US);
Abstract
A vibration-assisted positioning stage comprising a stage, a roller bearing, an compliant joint interconnecting the roller bearing to the stage such that the compliant joint is sufficiently compliant in a direction of movement to permit reliable alignment of the stage and further permit dithering, and a dithering force actuator applying a dithering force directly to the roller bearing to permit the dithering of the stage. The dithering forces can be applied out of phase to minimize vibration of the stage. Furthermore, the controller of the stage can be employed to suppress any remnant vibrations of the stage due to dithering. A supervisory control system can intelligently adapt the parameters of the dithering signal to optimize the performance of the stage as friction changes.