Precision Motion Control

Tan Kok Kiong

Precision manufacturing is a development that has been gathering momentum over the last century and accelerating over the last 25 years in terms of research, development, and application to product innovation. The driving force in this development arises from requirements for much higher performance of products, higher reliability, longer life, lower cost, and miniaturization. This development is widely known as precision engineering and, today, it is generally defined as manufacturing to tolerances which are better than one part in 105. Applications are abound and can be found in various semiconductor processes (e.g., lithography, wafer probing, inspection), Coordinate Measuring Machines (CMMs) and precision metrology systems (e.g., Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM)), and robot/machine tools to carry out micro-assembly (e.g., MEMS) and delicate short wavelength laser processes. As an...