Design and Analysis of a Long-Stroke and High-Precision Positioning System for Scanning Beam Interference Lithography

Abstract

A macro–micro dual-drive positioning system was developed for Scanning Beam Interference Lithography (SBIL) which uses a dual-frequency laser interferometer as the position reference and exhibits the characteristics of long travel, heavy load, and high accuracy. The macro-motion system adopts a friction-driven structure and a feedforward PID control algorithm, and the stroke can reach 1800 mm. The micro-motion system adopts a flexible hinge–plus-PZT driving method and a PID control algorithm based on neural networks, which achieves sufficient positioning accuracy of this system at the nanometer level. An optical-path-sealing system was used to reduce the measurement noise of the dual-frequency laser interferometer. The static stability of the positioning system, the stepping capacity of the macro-motion system, the stepping capacity of the micro-motion system, and the positioning accuracy of the system were tested and analyzed. Additionally, the sources and effects of errors during the motion process were assessed in detail. Finally, the experimental results show that the workbench can locate at the nanoscale within the full range of travel, which can satisfy the SBIL exposure requirement.