Design, analysis and experimental investigations of a high precision flexure-based microgripper for micro/nano manipulation

In this paper, a flexure-based piezoelectric actuated microgripper is presented for high precision micro/nano manipulation tasks. A new design of microgripper based on a three-stage displacement amplification mechanism is utilized to magnify the piezoelectric actuator displacement. A bridge-type mechanism with a two-sided output port is serially connected with two consecutive lever mechanisms. The output motion on both sides is linearized by parallelogram mechanisms. The single-notch and double-notch circular flexural hinges were used in lever, bridge-type and parallelogram configuration. The displacement amplification and transmission mechanisms are arranged symmetrically to obtain stability of shape and compact layout of the entire microgripper. Analytical modeling was performed to establish an input and output displacement relationship. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) method was utilized to evaluate the performance of the microgripper. The design parameters of the microgripper were optimized through FEA method. The simulation results of the FEA method were validated through experimentation on the established design. The experimental results show that the total displacement amplification ratio of the microgripper is 12.76. The microgripper jaws have a high precision positioning accuracy. The microgripper also achieves a high-level working mode frequency of 1044 Hz, which is capable of accommodating rapid transient responses.