Piezo objective scanners | Focusing stages

You’re looking at a Xeryon objective scanner driven by an ultrasonic resonant piezo motor. This is not your regular piezo technology.

Our Crossfixx™ ultrasonic piezo motor uses vibration to move a ceramic tip in an elliptical pattern at a very high frequency (80 kHz - 180 kHz). Spring-loaded against a ceramic strip inside the stage, it generates very small but rapid movements, resulting in high-speed motion and silent operation with a long lifetime.

This gives you the best of both worlds:

1) The lifetime and speed of an electromagnetic motor.
2) The precision and compactness of a piezo stage.

Xeryon’s focusing stages offer the precision and size of traditional piezo stages, without their typical drawbacks.

Our piezo objective positioners have a much larger stroke, opening up a wide range of new possibilities and applications.

In addition, they offer much (much!) longer lifetime, operate noiselessly, consume less power, and operate at a much lower voltage at the piezo element.

Traditional stick-slip piezo stages operate at much lower frequencies, typically within the frequency range of small mechanical components. Apart from being in the human audible spectrum, this introduces the risk of the stick-slip piezo motor making the entire system vibrate, rather than only the motor itself.

Xeryon's ultrasonic piezo stages operate at much higher frequencies (80 - 180 kHz), ensuring silent operation and no unwanted vibrations.

An in-depth comparison of the different types of piezo motors can be found here.

Xeryon’s piezo objective scanners offer a unique combination of high precision, long stroke, rapid positioning and durability in an ultra-compact design, overcoming the limitations of traditional Z-axis focusing stages where trade-offs have to be made (e.g. stroke length, size factor, precision or speed). Xeryon’s stages are gearless, self-locking, energy-efficient and operate at low voltages. They don’t produce a magnetic field, are back-drivable, and free from drift or play.

Yes, this is possible. All of our stages can be paired, sometimes even without the need of mounting brackets. Easily build multi-DOF setups, combining vertical, horizontal and rotary stages.

Check out our stages' combination guide here.

Yes. All of Xeryon's stages are available as vacuum-compatible versions. A quick word about non-magnetism:

1. Xeryon stages do not generate a magnetic field, thanks to the absence of copper windings or magnets.
2. However, Xeryon stages contain ferromagnetic materials, making them attracted to sources of magnetism.