Exploiting additional actuators and sensors for nano-positioning robust motion control

The ongoing need for miniaturization and an increase of throughput in IC-manufacturing is obstructed by performance limitations in motion control of nano-positioning wafer stages. These limitations are imposed by flexible dynamical behavior, associated with structural deformations of the nano-positioning stages. The aim of this research is to investigate limits on achievable performance in a conventional control configuration and to mitigate these limits through the use of additional actuators and sensors. To this end, a systematic framework for control design using additional actuators and sensors in the generalized plant configuration is presented, which leads to a well-posed H∞H∞-control optimization problem that extends conventional design approaches in a natural way and exploits physical insight to address structural deformations in weighting filter design. Through an experimental confrontation of the design framework with a prototype next-generation nano-positioning motion system, successful performance enhancement beyond the conventional limits is demonstrated.