Analysis of a novel flexure hinge with three degrees of freedom

Abstract

The flexure hinge is widely used as the mechanism for a high precision positioning stage with a micrometer or nanometer resolution. In this article we propose a novel flexure hinge with three degrees of freedom in which the motions are restricted in the same plane. An analysis model is developed to analyze the flexure hinge. The results obtained are consistent with those of the finite element method. A characteristic study using the proposed model shows that this flexure hinge has a feature of linear load displacement. In addition, the most effective way to change the stiffness of this flexure hinge is to modify the notch's radius. A prototype of this novel flexure hinge has been manufactured and the measured characteristics prove the advantages of this proposed model. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.