Are you looking for a manipulator...

• that fits into your setup,
• that has a huge stroke in one axis,
• the other axis does not matter, but
• the third axis must know where it is?!

Well, and you should be able to hit a certain point with it - and not the area around your desired target, is that right?

These questions are familiar for us and we developed a complete system of manipulators that can be combined in various versions.

The manipulator on the right is made out of two modules NMT 20 as XY-stage placed at the bottom and one NMT-Z20 pointing upwards with its stroke. You can also see the rod system for the assembly in an Electron Microscope.

In another setup the NMT-Z20 is placed under the XY-stage. Then the internal load compensation can be adjusted to lift up higher loads than in the first setup.

In any case these manipulators allow orthogonal movement. If you ever tried to move a tip towards a certain position on a sample with a manipulator that mixes 2 or 3 directions you know why orthogonal movement is essential.

The rod system allows to assemble the manipulator in Electron Microscopes at a port position. The NMT modules of this example are not the smallest versions but they can include position sensors. A manipulator that uses the modules NMT-5L/10L/15L or 20L as XY-stage can be much smaller (Fig.1), but without position sensor in XY direction. The NMT-Z20 still can have a position sensor and lifts up the small XY-stage. This combination is ideal for SEM applications, because the height information is not available in the Electron Microscope and absolute positioning in Z-direction is very helpful. The XY-movement is directly visible in the microscope and needs no additional sensor.

Four cartesian Nanorobotics manipulators including position sensors.

Complete solutions...
with different examples of manipulators are described in the "Systems" area at:
Manipulators for Electron and Ion Microscopy