Design of dielectric-elastomer actuated XY stages with millimeter range and submicrometer resolution

In this paper, we present the development and performance evaluation of dielectric-elastomer actuated XY (DEA-XY) stages with a millimeter range and submicrometer resolution. The design of the DEA-XY stage is based on a circular dielectric-elastomer actuator with two vertically distributed electrodes that can generate a two degree-of-freedom motion. To optimize their performances, various DEAXY stages with different dimensions and pre-stretches are firstly fabricated. Then, both static and dynamic performances of the DEA-XY stages are investigated by experiments, which demonstrate that: i) the workspace of the DEA-XY stage can reach 2.5 mm × 2.5 mm; ii) the cross-coupling effect is less than 6.5%; iii) the dynamic responses of the DEA-XY stage show both viscoelastic creep and hysteresis nonlinearities. To demonstrate the resolution of the DEA-XY stage, we implement a feedback controller to remove the creep effect. By tracking step trajectories, the results show that the DEA-XY stage can achieve the positioning resolution of 100 nm. This work demonstrates the potential application of the DEA-XY stage in the field of microscale manipulators.