A rotary stage, or rotation stage is a mechanism used to rotate a sample or specimen with high angular accuracy. Motorized rotary stages make use of a motion controller and stepper motors or closed-loop motors with position feedback and computer control. For test of optics, often rotary air bearings are used, because of their extremely low excentricity and wobble.
PI provides a wide variety of precision rotation stages for high-accuracy and standard precision positioning applications.
Different stage drive concepts, from ironless piezo-motors, air-bearings / torque motors to compact worm-gear rotary positioners with encoded and open-loop stepper-motors to the ultra-low profile, self-locking piezo-motor rotation stages are available in standard and custom designs. Air bearing stages provide extremely accurate motion with minimum wobble and excentricity and are recommended for applcations such as X-ray crystallography.
Piezo-motor-driven stages are self locking at rest, a great advantage when it comes to long term stability and when applications require power to be shut down. The low inertia of the piezo-rotation stages also enables very fast step and settle with minimum overshoot.
In addition to classical worm gear rotation stages for ambient and vacuum environments, goniometer cradles are available, tip/tilt positioners , piezo mirror rotators with fixed center of rotation and even multiaxis parallel positioners such as hexapods with fully programmable center of rotation for three rotary axes.
Miniature and sub-miniature rotary positioners are now available in a variety of sizes, with profiles as low as 7 mm and rotation speeds as high as 1000 deg/sec.
Most positioning systems are also available for vacuum and high vacuum environments.
New PDF Brochure: Motorized Ultra High Accuracy Rotation Stage Brochure from PI miCos
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Ultra-Low Profile Rotation Table with Fast Ironless Piezo-Motor
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 The M-660 / U-651 precision rotation stage is the lowest profile rotary table with high-speed direct-drive ceramic piezo motors on the market. This ironless drive can move at very slow speeds and accelerate quickly to velocities of 720 degrees/sec. Its directly coupled precision optical encoder resolves positions down to 4 µrad (0.00023°), providing phase-lag-free, backlash-free feedback to the servo controller. The self-clamping ceramic drive provides very high stability, with no energy consumption at rest and no heat generation
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U-628 High-Speed Miniature Rotation Stage with Piezo Motor: 720 Deg/Sec
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This miniaturized closed-loop rotary positioner is driven by an ultrasonic direct-drive motor and provides high rotational velocity up to 3 revolutions / second. An optical encoder is integrated for direct position measurement and feedback with 35 µrad resolution.
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U-624 / U-622 Sub-Miniature Rotation Stage with Fast Ultrasonic Motor
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This sub-miniature rotation stage is available in vacuum and standard versions. Two sizes are available: Ø30x12mm and Ø20x10mm.
A fast ultrasonic ceramic ring-shaped resonator motor provides high speed to 120 RPM. An optical direct metrology encoder is integrated for position feedback.
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Ultra-Low Profile Mini Rotation Stages with Stick-Slip Piezo Motors
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 Video: Stick-Slip Operating Principle |
Q-motion series miniature rotation stages are driven by inertia-type piezo motors. These miniaturized stages are direct-driven, backlash free and provide micro-radian resolution. The self-locking design requires no holding current and provides excellent long-term stability. Three different diameters are available: 14 mm, 22 mm and 32 mm.
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Air-Bearing Ultra-Precision Rotation Stages and Spherical Air Bearings
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620-Series Family of Rotary Air Bearing Stages - mount in any orientation 
Low profile air bearing stage - for horizontal mount 
Compact Motorized Air Bearing Stage Video 
Custom 300mm Air Bearing Stage Read Article Large Air Bearing Stage for Synchrotron Crystallography 
Spherical air bearing - 3 rotational degrees of freedom. Read Article on Spherical Air Bearings for Zero Gravity Simulation |
PI's air-bearing rotation stages provide the highest accuracy and smoothest motion of any commercially available rotation stage. With standard and custom designs these stages are designed for reference class applications.
More information on
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Vacuum Compatible Precision Rotation Stage, High Load / Worm Gear
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PRS-200 rotation stages can handle high loads to 50 kg and come with a large aperture for photonics and optics applications.
Stepper and servo motors are availabe, direct metrology encoders are optional and a high-vacuum version is also available.
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M-06x Precision High-Resolution Rotation Tables / Worm Gear Driven | ||
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M-06x series rotation stages are equipped with ultra-precise, ultra-low-friction,
spring-preloaded worm gear drives allowing unlimited rotation in either direction. Three
different turn-table diameters are available: 60 mm, 100mm and 120mm.
Drive Options: Servo Motor, Stepper Motor and Manual
Three motor drives are available: Open-Loop Stepper Drives and two closed-loop servo
drives with different resolution / speed rating.
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M-116 Precision Miniature High-Resolution Rotation Table Compact / Worm Gear Driven
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M-116 rotation stages are equipped with low-friction, spring-preloaded worm gear
drives allowing unlimited rotation in either direction in an extremely compact package.
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Additional Precision Rotation Stages and Goniometer Cradles from PI miCos | ||
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The PI miCos line of goniometers and rotation stages is specialized on miniature stages with different motor drives (belt-drives, worm-gear drives) and also on ultra-high precision stages with torque motors, direct metrology and air bearings.
Most stages are available in high vacuum and UHV specification.
Overview / Specifications of PI miCos precision rotary positioners and goniometers |
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M-880 Rotation + XY Stage: Planar 3-Axis Precision Positioner XY-Rot-Z Parallel Kinematics System with Very High Holding Force | ||
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This parallel-kinematics 3-axis precision positioning system combines rotation around Z
and linear travel in the X and Y axes in a very low profile package.
The extremely low profile of just 105 mm is made possible because all actuators are
directly connected to the single moving platform, as opposed to stacking a rotation stage
on top of an XY table.
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M-811 Vacuum-Hexapod: 3 x Rotation + XYZ = 6 DOF, High Precision and Very Versatile
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This Hexapod provides 6 degrees of freedom: rotation around 3 axes and 3 linear motions in one compact, vacuum-compatible package. It can handle loads up to 11 lbs (5kg) and move at velocities to 10 mm/sec. The combination of linear motion and rotation angles of 20° around the X and Y axis and up to 40° around the vertical axis allows for complex motion profiles with particularly flexible placement of the load - a great advantage in restricted areas (such as beam lines) and small vacuum chambers.
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P-528 Precision Piezo Z/Tip/Tilt Stage: 2 x Rotation + Z
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P-5x8 series, Z/tip/tilt nanopositioners are open-frame, high-resolution, piezo-driven stages providing Z motion to 240 µm and rotation around X and Y to 2.4 mrad with resolutions of up to 0.5 nm and 50 nrad. The 66 x 66 mm clear aperture is ideal for transmitted-light applications.
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Goniometer Cradels: Precision Rotation with a fixed Pivot Point | ||
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Goniometric cradles are used to rotate samples and objects to a precise angular position. The units here are equipped with precision servo and stepper motors and high-resolution encoders for angular position feedback.
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S-335 2-Axis Rotational Piezo Mirror Positioner, Fast Steering Mirror with up to 70 mrad Deflection
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The S-335 miniature platforms rotate a mirror up to 35 mrad (70 mrad optical deflextion) around the X and Y axes. These fast mirror scanners are based on solid-state piezo drives and a parallel-kinematics flexure guiding system, with two coplanar, orthogonal axes and a fixed pivot point.
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S-340 2-Axis Rotational Piezo Mirror Positioner, Fast Steering Mirror for Optics to 4” Diameter | ||
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This piezo platform can rotate a mirror or optic up to 2 mrad (4 mrad optical deflection) around two orthogonal axes. The parallel-kinematic, solid-state piezo drive system guarantees exceptional precision and very fast response in the low millisecond range and below. PDF Brochure | Request Quote | |
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S-224 Piezo Mirror Tilter: Rotation with 50 Nano-Radian Resolution
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S-224/S-226 miniature tilt platforms provide rotation of 2.2 mrad around the Y-axis. They are extremely fast with resonse in the microsecond range. A Ø15x4mm BK7 glass mirror is mounted.
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 Two ultrasonic piezo motors driving a circular ceramic runner in an M-660 rotation stage |
 Ultra-slow motion animation of the PILine® ultrasonic piezo motor. The ceramic tip (pusher) is moving on an pseudo-elliptical trajectory. In reality the tip only moves a few nanometers at frequencies to 100's of kHz. | |
