Development of XYZ Flexure Micro-positioning stages based on ETC type two-axis flexure hinges

The development of flexure-based XYZ micro-positioning stages incorporating a novel type of flexure hinges with elliptical transverse cross-sections (ETC) is presented. In comparison to classical two-axis flexure hinges featuring rectangular transverse cross-sections (RTC), parametric studies of both the flexure hinges and the flexure stage were conducted, focusing on stress concentration, motion range, and output decoupling. The results demonstrate that the ETC-based XYZ flexure stage outperforms the RTC-based design in all three aspects. A prototype of the XYZ flexure stage utilizing ETC-type two-axis flexure hinges was developed and experimentally tested, achieving motion errors and parasitic motions of less than 5%. The ETC-type two-axis flexure hinges offer a novel approach for advancing spatial flexure stage design.