Stage Delivers Compact Stability

PI's new M-687 motorized microscope XY stage for inverted microscopes is more compact and stable than traditional computer controllable microscope stages, due to its fully integrated, miniaturized ceramic linear drives. The M-687 is delivered as a complete system including a controller, joystick and software. The self-clamping ceramic/ceramic linear motors in the M-687 XY positioner are not only more compact than electromagnetic motors, but also provide significantly higher positional stability for the following reasons: once in place, no energy is consumed to hold position (no heat dissipation); no leadscrews that heat up due to friction during motion and cause drift cooling down once the motion stops; no creep caused by lubricant flow in the drive mechanism. In addition to the high-precision motors, integrated, 100 nm resolution linear encoders provide direct position feedback to the controller allowing closed-loop operation with high accuracy. A variety of accessories such as slides holders, petri dish holders, multi-well plate holders is available, as well as high-speed Piezo-Z nanopositioning stages for 3-D microscopy, image stack acquisition, or fast auto-focus. PI also provides XYZ piezo nanopositioning flexure stages for Super-Resolution (SR) microscopy.