Industrial-class direct-drive positioners

The LMS-180 linear stage family is available with five travel ranges from 6" (155mm) to 20" (508mm). Equipped with an ironless electromagnetic linear motor, it delivers smooth motion with 15nm resolution and 0.05µm repeatability. When driven with the SMC Hydra closed-loop motion controller, maximum velocity is 19.7ips (500mm/sec). An integrated direct-measuring incremental linear encoder with sine/cosine output provides position feedback. Recirculating ball bearings provide 250N (56 lb) load capacity and durability at demanding repetitive cycle rates with high speeds.

The stage is also available in a modified version (LS-180) with a ballscrew drive and rotary stepper and servo motor options, providing load capacity of 1,000N (224 lb) and higher push/pull forces. It is mounting-compatible to the LMS-180. www.pi-usa.us

A combined vision system (CVS) for primary flight displays includes video feed from Elbit Systems’ ClearVision enhanced vision system (EVS) product line and from the synthetic vision system (SVS), allowing intuitive flight visualization in degraded weather conditions.

The CVS application blends SVS, real-time video, and symbology, providing a 3D perspective view of the topography, including stationary objects such as airports, airport runways, and helipads. The image on the primary flight display is generated in real time from several database sources, providing a video mixed with thermal imaging and additional cameras. www.elbitsystems.com

GaN-on-silicon devices on 200mm wafers

X-FAB Silicon Foundries and Exagan, a start-up gallium-nitride (GaN) semiconductor technology company, have demonstrated capability to mass produce high-voltage power devices on 200mm GaN-on-silicon wafers. Using X-FAB’s standard complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) production facility in Dresden, Germany – the result of a joint development agreement launched in 2015 – many of the challenges related to material stress, defectivity, and process integration have been resolved. This will significantly lower the cost of mass producing GaN-on-silicon devices and will enable greater power integration than silicon integrated circuits since GaN devices can improve the efficiency and reduce the cost of electrical converters.

The new GaN-on-silicon devices have been built using substrates fabricated at Exagan’s 200mm epi-manufacturing facility in Grenoble, France. These epi wafers meet the physical and electrical specifications to produce Exagan’s 650V G-FET devices as well as the tight requirements for compatibility with CMOS manufacturing lines. www.exagan.com; www.xfab.com

QNP3 series XYZ piezo positioning stages, in a compact three-degree-of-freedom (DoF) package, come with a 40mm x 40mm clear aperture with closed-loop travels up to 100µm x 100µm x 10µm (open-loop travels to 120µm x 120µm x 12µm). The QNP3 piezo stages use an FEA-optimized precision parallel-kinematic flexure and metrology design, minimizing X- and Y-yaw errors while maintaining an Abbe-compliant metrology system. Z-axis actuators and capacitive sensors provide Abbe-compliant vertical feedback with minimal geometric errors.

Available with closed- or open-loop feedback, capacitive sensor parallel-metrology design measures output of the positioning carriage, delivering sub-nanometer resolution, linearity errors better than 0.01%, and single-digit nanometer repeatability. www.aerotech.com