Voltage proportional control reduces inertial force from an unbalanced weight in a dual-mounted actuator structure used for high performance scanning probe microscopes

A dual-mounted actuator structure is widely used to reduce the inertial force from high-speed actuators and to alleviate the vibration of the base in a scanning probe microscope. However, the inertial force resulting from an unbalanced weight should be considered and is conventionally performed by adding a dummy mass to balance the weight. In this paper, the inertial force resulting from an unbalanced weight is balanced by adjusting the amplitude ratio of the voltages applied to two actuators in a dual-mounted actuator structure. The experimental results show that the base vibration is well suppressed even if an unbalanced weight exists. The vibration suppression effect of the proposed approach is comparable to the effect generated when using the traditional method.