Overview
Luminos U Series Ultra Resolution Positioners utilize the Luminos designed Ultra Precise Linear Stepping Motor Actuator and deliver industry leading 0.1um bi-directional backlash with incremental move capability finer than 10nm resolution on the X and Y axis.
U Series Positioners provide full 2.5mm x 2.5mm x 12.7mm XYZ travel range and offer significant performance improvements compared to Luminos automated I3000 and I6000 positioners which also provide photonics grade alignment with smaller travel ranges.
U Series Positioners represent a significant leap in automation capability, delivering a five fold increase in working resolution (actual minimum movement without lost micro-steps) and an overall speed increase of 12x with a 25x greater motor travel envelope.
U Series Positioners deliver performance that far exceeds SMF-28 Singlemode Fiber Alignment requirements. Using only stepping motor controls, there is no need for closed loop compensation or fine stages and additional controllers. You can also easily align SM waveguides to within 0.01 dB of optimized without backlash compensation.
U6 Ultra XYZ/RYP Positioner
Fiber and Photonics Alignment - No Piezos Required
In the Photonics industry it is generally accepted that Alignment Stages need to resolve to about 1% of beam size or waveguide MFD. For aligning SMF-28 with 10um MFD, a resolution of 100nm is usually acceptable – or was. With the emergence of cutting edge planar photonic devices there is an increasing requirement to align smaller and smaller waveguide structures sometimes as fine as 2um MFD.
It is becoming clear that a new standard of about 20nm resolution is needed for Photonics Positioning Stages. Most major positioning stage manufacturers offer automated alignment systems that employ Coarse + Fine travel stages with multiple levels of controllers, in order to meet Photonics resolution requirements. Many such course travel stages have motor actuators with up to 5-10um of backlash. The use of fine travel piezo stages is therefore not an option, resulting in increased system complexity.
