Nanometer Geometry Over Long Travel in a Compact Instrument
Long-read sequencing puts two demands on one stage. It needs nanometer geometry over travel long enough to cover the imaging area, and move-and-settle fast enough to keep the camera busy. The system had to fit a compact instrument envelope, hold accuracy and flatness across up to 160 mm of travel and trigger imaging in step with motion.
Low-profile direct-drive ANT stages carry the load, with 2D factory calibration and orthogonality held to 0.5 arc seconds. The system holds ±0.5 µm accuracy over travel, ±250 nm repeatability, ±2 µm flatness and straightness, in-position stability under 0.5 nm and minimum incremental motion of 0.5 nm, at 200 mm per second and 1 g. The Automation1 platform runs position-based triggering over the HyperWire optical bus at 20 kHz servo update rates.
