Hybrid Positioning Architecture Selector

Enter your positioning requirements to get an architecture recommendation with performance estimates, error budget, and trade-off rationale.

Selecting a positioning architecture requires balancing travel range, resolution, degrees of freedom, payload, and environment — parameters that together often exceed what any single-technology stage can satisfy. This tool evaluates your requirements against four architecture classes: hexapod (multi-DOF, compact), coarse–fine hybrid (extended range with nanometer resolution), single-stage piezo flexure (sub-millimeter travel, sub-nanometer resolution), and stacked serial stages (multi-axis, large travel). Given your inputs, it recommends an architecture with a quantified rationale, estimates resonant frequency and settling time, computes an RSS error budget from Abbe error, thermal drift, and stage repeatability, and names the leading alternative with trade-off notes.

Requirements
Recommended Architecture
Architecture
Coarse–Fine Hybrid
Total DOF
3
For 3 DOF with 25 mm travel and 100 nm resolution, a coarse–fine hybrid provides the best balance of range, precision, and flexibility.
Performance Estimates
Travel / resolution ratio
Within single-stage range
250,000
Est. resonant frequency
f_res = (1/2π)√(k/m) with representative stiffness
225.1Hz
Est. settling time
t ≈ 3/f_res
13.33ms
Error Budget Estimate
Abbe error
δ = L × α (architecture-dependent offset)
3,000nm
Thermal drift
α_CTE × ΔT × L (assumes ±0.5 °C)
2,300nm
Stage repeatability
Representative for architecture type
5nm
RSS total (1σ)
√(Abbe² + thermal² + repeatability²)
3,780.2nm
Alternative
Alternative architecture
Stacked Serial Stages
Stacked serial stages are simpler if the resolution requirement can be met without a piezo fine stage.
Abridged Optics — Hybrid Positioning Architecture Selector v1.0Estimates use representative stiffness and error values. Always verify with vendor specifications and workspace calculators.

All information, equations, and calculations have been compiled and verified to the best of our ability. For mission-critical applications, we recommend independent verification of all values. If you find an error, please let us know.