White Papers

When one surveys the field of precision positioners intended for use in photonic automation, flexural guideways show up in a substantial number of product offerings. At first glance, they seem well suited to the task; they are simple to build, low in cost, and their limited travel seems a good fit to the application. Upon closer examination, however, the weak points of flexures multiply, and their intrinsic limitations stand out.

Friction nut leadscrews and rollin element ballscrews are effective means to translate rotary to linear motion for low to medium accuracy, resolution, and throughput applications. When pushed beyond those use cases, their limitations quickly become apparent. This whitepaper explains those trade-offs and helps you decide when direct-drive technology is the better choice.

All translation stages require both guideways and an actuation method, and one option is the inverse piezoelectric effect, where applied voltage causes a piezoceramic element to expand or contract. In this whitepaper, we review common piezo actuator types and show how their inherent limits. While Piezos have their place, inherent in their design are limitations that can be overcome with the use of other technologies.

Discover how tip tilt stages provide precision angular control for demanding applications. This whitepaper explains their core mechanics and shows how they maintain focus with high-NA objectives and correct sample or system tilt in microscopy, optics/photonics, and semiconductor manufacturing, highlighting when custom tip tilt solutions can significantly improve overall system performance.

Even after all sources of true mechanical backlash have been eliminated, microstepped positioning stages still exhibit backlash. In this whitepaper, we explain why this intrinsic effect occurs—linking torsional stiffness, friction torque, and microstepping drive behavior—and outline practical ways to measure, reduce, and compensate for it in precision motion applications.

Discover the concept of Abbe error and its effects on the accuracy of direct-drive stages using high accuracy linear encoders. In this whitepaper, we will cover the Position Accuracy Compensation (PAC) as a powerful method to address these inaccuracies by utilizing laser interferometer measurements, resulting in substantial improvements in precision, up to 10X to 20X.

In precision motion applications, it is frequently necessary to trigger a device in a way that is synchronized with the position of a moving stage. In this whitepaper, we explore the position-based triggering basics—covering encoder feedback, position windows, and timing behavior—and show how Dover Motion’s Trigger On Position feature can improve repeatability, reduce latency, and enable higher imaging throughput.

Air bearings have an additional edge over conventional rolling steel bearing systems that is not generally appreciated: in many precision and photonic alignment applications, they can deliver up to 10× higher throughput. In this whitepaper, we explain how frictionless motion, higher servo bandwidth, and shorter move and settle times translate into substantial productivity improvement.

Divide and conquer! To help in understanding positioning systems, this whitepaper uses a reductionistic approach, breaking them down into their constituent assemblies. We outline each category’s key attributes, strengths, and limitations so you can better select and integrate the right technologies for your high precision motion applications.

Our miniature, high performance air bearing linear motor stages have a unique secondary capability for photonic automation: they can act as both precise generators and sensitive measurers of force. In this whitepaper, we explain how their frictionless, non-contact motor, bearing, and encoder design enables milliNewton-level force creation and measurement without external load cells, while preserving high precision motion and short move and settle times.

The state of the art in precision positioning systems has advanced to the point where modern stages can achieve unprecedented levels of accuracy, driven by coherent light sources and the demands of advanced tech applications. This paper will attempt to address the realistic accuracy levels which various positioning technologies can meet, as well as the nature of the limitations which restrict accuracy.

This publication describes a 350 mm travel XY positioning system with a novel parallel-link topology, high dynamic performance, and an advanced real-time controller. The Delta Stage delivers substantially higher acceleration, bandwidth, and thermal efficiency than traditional H- and T-style XY stages, with advantages that become even more compelling as the required travel increases.

This publication describes a constant-velocity scanning stage with a resolution of 31 picometers, built on a precision granite air-bearing platform and an ironless linear motor drive. It details the encoder and laser interferometer feedback architecture and shows how the design achieves nanometer-level tracking accuracy for demanding applications such as fiber Bragg grating fabrication.

This whitepaper contrasts two distinct approaches to specifying and quantifying velocity stability and explains how each is affected by encoder resolution and sampling rate. Limitations and common missteps are enumerated, and a recommendation is made on a preferred approach. Real-world examples reinforce the presented theory and provide a link to practical applications.

It may not seem logical, but you can boost the productivity of a servo system by slowing down its operation. This whitepaper explains this paradox by showing how move time, power, motor constant, and duty cycle interact—and how selecting an optimum move profile can dramatically increase throughput while avoiding overheating and oversized motors.

This publication presents an adjustable passive magnetic system that provides a constant force along its stroke to cancel gravity in vertical linear stages. We compare it with active and pneumatic systems and show how a shear-magnetic design reduces energy use, heat, complexity, and maintenance while improving reliability for high-performance Z-axis motion in demanding imaging and semiconductor applications.

Multi-phase motors need to switch among phases as they move, which is referred to as commutation. Most systems with incremental encoders require an initial commutation phase finding step upon power-up. Depending on the specifics of the application, this can range from quick and easy to problematic. This white paper provides a solid grounding on the subject of commutation and includes a robust algorithm that ensures accurate commutation under even challenging conditions.

This white paper addresses high performance Z axis focusing for automated microscopy, along with some recent innovations in this space. Historically, piezo driven actuators have been used for these applications, but a Piezo actuator has very distinct limitations. Direct drive linear motor stages provide many advantages when compared to piezo nanopositioners. This whitepaper discusses both approaches to Z focusing motion.

At the heart of many biomedical instruments lies an automated digital microscope, from simple brightfield to fluorescence, darkfield, TIRF, Nomarski, and confocal imaging. This whitepaper explains how a few core optical rules drive XYZ stage requirements and shows how aligning optics and mechanics can boost imaging throughput. It’s a practical guide to configuring your system for both performance and efficiency.

In precision motion applications, it is frequently necessary to trigger a device in a way that is synchronized with the position of a moving stage. In this whitepaper, we explore the position-based triggering basics—covering encoder feedback, position windows, and timing behavior—and show how Dover Motion’s Trigger On Position feature can improve repeatability, reduce latency, and enable higher imaging throughput.

Optimize the performance and cost of your automated optical imaging system with 6 key equations for selecting an imaging sensor, objective lens, Z-focusing nanopositioning stage, and XY sample positioning motion. In this whitepaper, we present 4 practical steps that connect numerical aperture, magnification, field of view, and depth of field to the XYZ motion requirements of high throughput digital microscopes.

This whitepaper provides an introduction to the SmartStage XY platform and a comparison to alternative technologies to show why this integrated linear motor stage is already transforming automated digital microscopy. It explains how advanced features such as Trigger On Position, Position Accuracy Compensation, and Repetitive Motion Enhancement increase imaging throughput and positioning performance.

While CCD image sensors have been surpassed by CMOS sensors for most areal (move-stop-acquire) imaging applications, they remain a fundamental sensor technology, and for constant-velocity TDI-CCD image scanning, their incredible charge transfer capability is essential. In this whitepaper, we explore the basics of CCD imaging technology and explain where CCDs still offer advantages over CMOS sensors.

Custom tube lenses are powerful tools to increase imaging performance and system flexibility in automated digital microscopy. In this whitepaper, we explore how choosing the tube lens focal length, sensor pixel size, and pixel number can dramatically increase areal imaging throughput, correct coverslip and objective aberrations, and even reduce system cost—with no loss in resolution.

For automated digital microscopy, it’s important to select the right image sensor. In this whitepaper, we examine key pixel-level characteristics common to both CCD and CMOS devices—such as pixel size, sampling, quantum efficiency, and noise performance—and explain how they influence resolution, sensitivity, and imaging throughput so you can better match the sensor to your application.

In high-throughput microscopy, one imaging strategy consists of sequential field to field moves and image acquisitions. In this whitepaper, we explore techniques to optimize motion for Sequential Field Imaging—tuning move profiles, acceleration, and settle times—to maximize images per second while maintaining precise positioning and high image quality.

High speed Z-stack imaging is essential for acquiring sharp images at multiple focal planes within thick biological or life-science samples. This whitepaper explains the factors that limit Z-stack throughput and describes methods for improving performance through optimized motion profiles, reduced settle times, and coordinated camera triggering.