Piezodriven 50-microm range stage with subnanometer resolution

Our plain-English summary of Piezodriven 50-microm range stage with subnanometer resolution, by F.E. Scire, E.C. Teague (The Review of Scientific Instruments, 1978).

The study

• Authors: F.E. Scire, E.C. Teague
• Journal: The Review of Scientific Instruments
• Published: 1978;49(12):1735
• Cited by: 19 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

A micropositioning stage has been developed for use with optical and electron microscopes in the accurate measurement of fine lines used by the microelectronics industry and microscopic objects such as biological cells, air pollution particles, and asbestos fibers. The stage combines a piezoelectric driving element and flexure pivoted lever arms to achieve a compact, vacuum compatible device with a resolution of 0.001 microm or less over a range of 50 microm.

In plain English

This article is not a study of asbestos exposure or health. It is an engineering paper from the National Bureau of Standards describing a device (a "stage") that moves objects under optical and electron microscopes so they can be measured precisely. Asbestos fibers were named only as one kind of tiny object it might help measure. It was built to measure line widths on photomasks for the microelectronics industry. The stage used a stack of piezoelectric ceramic disks and two levers on flexible hinges to amplify small movements. The design gain was 30.3, but observed gains were between 20 and 30, mainly because of losses in the piezoelectric element. The stage could be moved in steps of one nanometer. Fitted over all the measured data (up to about 35 micrometers of displacement), its response departed from a straight line by 1.5%, or 0.25% if the first 1 to 2 micrometers were excluded. The authors stated that the main limitation was vibration of the moving part; typical peak-to-peak vibration was about 20 nanometers with the stage mounted in an electron microscope.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Engineering paper describing the design, construction and performance testing of a laboratory instrument (micropositioning stage); not a health study
• Who was studied: No people were studied. The subjects were micropositioning stages built at the National Bureau of Standards, Washington, D.C. (published 1978), made from 6061-T6 aluminum alloy or a nickel-iron alloy (Invar 36 FC). Values for two representative stages are given in Table I. The total number of stages built is not stated.
• Exposure: No asbestos exposure was studied. Asbestos fibers are mentioned only as one of several microscopic objects that the stage could be useful for measuring. The others named are biological cells, air pollution particles and tape-recorder microgap heads.
• Main results:
  • The levers had a design total gain of 30.3. Observed gains in the built stages were between 20 and 30.
  • Measurements showed that most of the lost motion was in the piezoelectric driving element.
  • Pitch, roll and yaw of the output member were all less than 1 arc second for output displacements of 35 micrometers. The OCR prints "1" as "I".
  • The displacement-versus-voltage measurements covered displacements of up to 35 micrometers.
  • Nonlinearity of displacement versus voltage was 1.5% when fitted over the full range of the measured data.
  • Nonlinearity was 0.25% when data from the first 1 to 2 micrometers of displacement were excluded.
  • The applied voltage was stepped in increments to produce displacements of one nanometer.
  • For a stage mounted in an electron microscope, typical peak-to-peak vibration amplitudes of the output member were about 20 nm.
  • On a vibration isolation table in the laboratory, the vibration amplitudes could be reduced to about 1 nm.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that stages of this design had been used successfully for photomask linewidth measurements with optical and electron microscopes. They also concluded that their model gave a reasonable account of the stage's behavior.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The authors stated that the primary limitation of the stages built was vibration of the output member.
  • The authors stated that they did not understand the cause of the unusual nonlinearity during the first 1 to 2 micrometers of displacement.

Related studies

• miR-16: expanding the range of molecular targets in mesothelioma — D. Fennell (2017)
• American Cancer Society plans for a long-range study of colonic and rectal cancer — E.C. Hammond (1970)
• Mineralogical and Technological Characterization of Zeolites from Basin and Range as Pozzolanic Addition of Cement — G. Montesano, P. Cappelletti, et al. (2022)
• Defining control reference ranges in biologic samples in analytical laboratories — B. Vrugt, B.K. Kuhn, et al. (2025)
• miR-1254 and miR-574-5p: serum-based microRNA biomarkers for early-stage non-small cell lung cancer — K.M. Foss, C. Sima, et al. (2011)
• The IASLC Mesothelioma Staging Project: Proposals for the M Descriptors and for Revision of the TNM Stage Groupings in the Forthcoming (Eighth) Edition of the TNM Classification for Mesothelioma — V.W. Rusch, K. Chansky, et al. (2016)

Browse return to medical research.