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Heason Awarded Contract for Nanometre Multiaxis Manipulator
Date: 13 August 2009
Heason Technology has been awarded a £ ¼ million order by Synchrotron Soleil, the French national synchrotron facility and research laboratory.
Heason are to design and manufacture four
nanopositioning manipulators that combine as a 14 axis ultra-high
vacuum and low magnetic motion system to position samples and
optics for an exciting new soft x-ray scanning photoemission
microscope project called ANTARES.
ANTARES will provide the global scientific community with the means
to examine structures at the atomic level and will be of benefit to
pioneering research in soft condensed matter in areas of interest,
such as microelectronics and nanotechnology.
ANTARES will benefit from a new and powerful Scanning PhotoEmission
Microscope (SPEM) technique that will use the Heason Technology
designed manipulators to both focus the beam and perform sample
scanning with nanometre precision in combination with three
independent detectors producing precise sample mapping, revealing
the location of the elements, their relative abundances, and their
chemical state.
ANTARES' motion requirements involve linear and rotary positioning
of the sample with a 5-axis nanometre resolution manipulator in
combination with three separate, 3-axis, beam modification
manipulators to ensure nanometre-level linear alignment of the
specialist optical system that comprises several Fresnel Zone
plates, an order sorting aperture (OSA) and a pinhole. Each of the
four manipulators will be arranged on an intricate adapter plate
system to effectively form a single assembly which is housed inside
a 550 mm inner-diameter vacuum chamber that also includes a granite
isolation plate base, laser interferometer optics, and various
other components including the experiments' complex detector
systems.
The challenge to design a customised solution within the severe
space restriction of the 10-10 mbar ultra-high vacuum
chamber is intensified by the need to limit magnetic materials
throughout the manipulators' bearing and mechanical support system
as well as restrict motor heat to within a desired operational
temperature and range of 25º C, +/- 1º C with vacuum bake-out
temperatures up to 120º C.
Such design specifications are considered to be unusual but not
impossible by Heason Technology's design engineers. Heason will
choose ceramic servomotor technology from its specialist partner
Nanomotion to ensure the high precision motion, non-magnetic and
low thermal characteristics for each manipulator axis including
both rotary positioners for sample positioning. A further benefit
of the technology is the Nanomotion ceramic motor's ability to hold
and lock position with zero position shift when power is removed to
further ensure temperature stability.
Each axis will include Renishaw optical encoders with either 0.1 or
0.05 micron feedback resolution to ensure the overall positioning
specification is achieved. To maintain the low magnetic
requirement, ensure the high stiffness and minimise harmonic
sensitivity within the positioning system, specialised stainless
steel cross roller bearings with low magnetic permeability will be
used. Where possible, within the tight dimensions provided by the
vacuum chamber, all axes will include overtravel switches and datum
position switches for homing the complete assembly.
Heason will also provide its customer with detailed manufacturing
and electrical scheme documentation, design and motor sizing
calculations, and material selection information for the complete
project. Through the design phase Heason design engineers will
liaise with Synchrotron Soleil scientist and engineering teams to
develop the final design in conjunction with the selection of other
specialised components that will also be housed in the vacuum
chamber whose dimensions are not yet finalised.
As expected with such pioneering research, the design specification
includes areas that require detailed evaluation before a final
specification can be defined. One such area is the provision of
single vertical axis for the sample positioner which is used to set
a course position at initial set-up and will be satisfied with a
stepper motor drive. During the design phase, Heason will carry out
full evaluation to determine whether this motor is to be located
within or outside the vacuum chamber.
The contract also includes full acceptance tests and site visits to
Synchrotron Soleil to assist with installation. During the design
phase and at installation, Heason will also liaise with Synchrotron
Soleil's motion control system supplier to provide specialist
software support. This includes developing an auto homing routine
so that all axes can safely establish a datum position without
collision, and a thermal prediction program for each the ceramic
motors based upon duty cycle and environmental conditions. These
requirements will also be pre-calculated and determined using a
separate motion controller at Heason Technology during the design
phase with the main parameters transferred to Synchrotron Soleils'
existing motion control system.
The expected installation date for the complete system is during
the autumn of 2009 with acceptance tests and full commissioning by
early 2010.
About Synchrotron SOLEIL and ANTARES
SOLEIL is an optimized 2.75 GeV synchrotron light
source of 3rd generation based some 25 km south of Paris. The first
10 beamlines are actually operational and open to users since 2006.
A total of 26 beamlines will be operational by 2011 covering the
whole energy range from IR to hard X-rays and providing a complete
panel of synchrotron radiation based outstanding experimental tools
for Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Earth and Environmental Sciences.
A permanent staff of 350 people forming the Experiments, Source and
Accelerators Divisions, Technical and Computer Support Services and
Administration will operate the installation for users and in-house
research.
As one of the latest beamlines at the Synchrotron Radiation SOLEIL
facility, ANTARES (Analysis Nano-spoT
Angle Resolved photo Emission
Spectroscopy beamline) will offer an X-ray nanoprobe able to
combine four powerful non-destructive techniques - angle resolved
photoemission (ARPES), core level photoemission (XPES), X-ray
absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and x-ray fluorescence (XRF). While
these traditional spectroscopic techniques are element-specific
probes of the electronic and chemical properties, by using them
with the benefit of a sizable probe at variable scaling between
nanometre and micrometre, the Antares beamline will be capable of
shedding light on an endless number of current puzzles of
nanotechnology, corrosion, magnetism, chemistry, catalysis and
exotic materials among others. Moreover, the availability of
versatile well defined linear and circular polarisations of the
photon beam will allow the study of anisotropic properties of
matter as well as chiral molecular complexes by dichroism
experiments.
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