R-Theta stage motion systems are better suited to circular, elliptic and spiral motion patterns than conventional Cartesian 2-axis XY linear translation stages.
Image Credit: PI (Physik Instrumente) LP
PI Offers Three Classes of R-Theta Stages
- For the highest performance and precision, Air Bearing linear stages and air bearing rotary tables are used.
- Hybrid R-Theta systems use linear motor driven stages with mechanical bearings and direct-drive air bearing rotary tables.
- Direct Drive linear motor stages and direct drive rotary tables with mechanical bearings are also available.
R-Theta systems often find applications in precision laser / semiconductor applications due to higher throughput, higher precision and smaller footprint. Watch video of an all air bearing R-Theta stages.
High Speed Motion Controllers
The stages are operated by PI’s ACS-based industrial motion controllers with ultra-fast triggers for synchronization with external equipment such as cameras, sensors or lasers. The fast controllers allow highly precise triggering with 0.01% time tolerance between signals. Trigger signals can be derived off absolute encoders or analog signals (sin/cos encoder), enabling higher precision, safer, and simplified solutions as compared to outdated digital encoder-only triggers. With the modern PI motion controllers, a trigger in an R-Theta configured system will work just as well as an XY position trigger, with the coordinate specifications simply defined in polar coordinates.
Read article on R-Theta stages
Working with You
PI’s in-house engineered solutions have enabled customers around the world to increase their productivity and technological advantage for 5 decades. With a large basis of proven motion technologies and methodologies, PI is in the position to quickly modify existing designs or provide a fully customized OEM solution to fit the exact requirements of your application from sensors and piezo transducers to microscope nano-focus units, fast photonics alignment systems to multi-axis automation sub-systems.