6 DOF repeatability measurement setup for measuring position of assembled silicon parts with nanometric resolution

This article presents a test setup dedicated to the measurement of the 6 degrees of freedom relative positioning assembly repeatability of three micro-manufactured parts equivalent to those composing a mesoscale flexure-based robot. The typical size of the parts is 20 x 20 x 0.5 mm. The parts are positioned with respect to each other by means of a novel alignment method that is under development. The required positioning repeatability is at least 100 nm in translation (x,y,z) and 17 μrad in the rotation (Rx, Ry and Rz). The test setup was realised and the first measurements results of the novel method of alignment are presented.