Mirror control with strain feedback and charge drive for high-performance of scanning probe microscope positioners

• An integrated control method based on mirror control for piezoelectric actuators is proposed.
• The proposed method makes strain feedback and charge drive complementary.
• The proposed method can drive grounded load and output high voltages.
• High linearity, low hysteresis and good low frequency response were achieved.
• The propose method was successfully implemented in an atomic force microscopy for low distortion scanning images.

An integrated control method based on mirror control with strain feedback and charge drive for piezoelectric actuators is presented in this paper. For mirror control, a target actuator is indirectly controlled and supposed to function simultaneously with a reference actuator. Based on this, a basic charge drive with good linearity and high resolution at high frequencies gains the ability to drive grounded load and output high voltages. Strain feedback is adopted to guarantee the low-frequency characteristic of the control system. This paper describes the integrated control method in detail. The experimental results demonstrated that high linearity, low hysteresis and good low-frequency response were achieved. The technique was also successfully implemented on a commercial atomic force microscopy for low-distortion scanning images.