The present invention relates to a mask table of a lithography machine, particularly, to a gravity balancing system for a rotor of a micropositioner which is mainly used in a lithography machine for semiconductor process, and belongs to the field of semiconductor manufacturing equipment.
In many industrial manufacturing apparatuses such as wafer table or mask table in the lithography machine, a workpiece or workpiece table is required to perform a multiple-degree-of-freedom motion while being precisely positioned. In order to enable the multiple-degree-of-freedom motion and precise positioning, a drive motor may be used to directly provide the support, such that, however, the load of the drive motor is increased and so the heating of the motor is increased. In many workpiece tables of ultraprecision, the heat generated by the drive motor may influence the temperature of the atmosphere to generate a non-contact type error in measurement which may finally influence the precision of positioning. However, a gravity compensating structure can reduce the load and heating of the motor.
The non-contact type gravity compensating structure of permanent magnet has advantages. Its structure is simple and precise processing of the surface of parts or components is not required, and it can be applied in a vacuum atmosphere. However, for such non-contact type gravity compensating structure of permanent magnet, a small stiffness and large bearing capacity in the direction of axis is required between the fixing part and the supporting part. With the development of magslev workpiece table, the large-stroke motion stage of the magslev workpiece table has a large array of halbach magnetic steel to generate a strong magnetic field which may have a large influence on the gravity balancing of the rotor of the micropositioner in operation.
The object of the present invention is to provide a gravity compensating structure of negative stiffness system, in which the stiffness of the gravity support in the direction of the axis between the stator and the rotor is near to zero, and the gravity compensating structure has a relatively large bearing capacity, and a simple structure easy to process and maintain.
The technical solution of the present invention is as follows.
A negative stiffness system for gravity compensation of a micropositioner, characterized in that, the negative stiffness system includes at least three sets of quasi-zero stiffness units, each of the sets of quasi-zero stiffness units comprises a pair of negative stiffness springs and a positive stiffness spring, the positive stiffness spring is vertically positioned, the pair of negative stiffness springs are obliquely and symmetrically positioned at two sides of the positive stiffness spring, upper ends of the negative stiffness springs and the positive stiffness spring are connected together and fixed to the bottom surface of a rotor of the micropositioner, and lower ends of the negative stiffness springs and the positive stiffness spring are connected to a base, respectively.
Supposing the initial angle of each of the negative stiffness springs with respect to the horizontal plane at a steady quasi-zero stiffness point, i.e. the initial dip angle θ0 of each negative stiffness spring, corresponds to a specific stiffness ratio of the negative stiffness spring to the positive stiffness spring at a quasi-zero stiffness point, which is represented by αQZS.
The negative stiffness system for gravity compensation of a micropositioner according to the present invention, characterized in that, the negative stiffness system is arranged in triangle when the negative stiffness system comprising three sets of quasi-zero stiffness units, and the negative stiffness system is arranged in rectangle when the negative stiffness system comprising four sets of quasi-zero stiffness units.
The present invention has the following advantages and significant effects. With the development of the magslev wafer table of the lithography machine, the micropositioner of the wafer table works in a magslev way, and the design of the micropositioner tends to be thinner and thinner, however, the present invention can avoid the influence of the magnetic steel array on the magnetic field of the Lorentz motor of the six-degree-of-freedom micropositioner, thereby improving the precision of motion, and the application of the negative stiffness system reduces the stiffness of the gravity compensating structure, which can improve the bearing capacity and isolation of vibration.
Wherein, 1—rotor of micropositioner; 2—negative stiffness unit; 3—positive stiffness unit; 4—base.
The specific structures, principles and operations of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
A negative stiffness system for gravity compensation of a micropositioner is provided, characterized in that, the negative stiffness system includes at least three sets of quasi-zero stiffness units, each of the sets of quasi-zero stiffness units comprises a pair of negative stiffness springs 2 and a positive stiffness spring 3, the positive stiffness spring 3 is vertically positioned, the pair of negative stiffness springs 2 are obliquely and symmetrically positioned at two sides of the positive stiffness spring 3, upper ends of the negative stiffness springs 2 and the positive stiffness spring 3 are connected together and fixed to the bottom surface of a rotor 1 of the micropositioner, and lower ends of the negative stiffness springs 2 and the positive stiffness spring 3 are connected to a base 4, respectively, as shown in
A negative stiffness system for gravity compensation of a micropositioner is provided, wherein the negative stiffness system is arranged in triangle when the negative stiffness system comprising three sets of quasi-zero stiffness units, and the negative stiffness system is arranged in rectangle when the negative stiffness system comprising four sets of quasi-zero stiffness units.
The quasi-zero stiffness unit refers to a combination of linear elastic elements (such as springs or struts) in such a way that the stiffness of the whole unit can be 0 or near to 0 when the unit under external load is at its balanced position (quasi-zero stiffness point). The negative stiffness system of the present invention is based on the following theory.
Stiffness is generally defined as a change rate of a load exerted on an elastic unit on the deformation caused by the load, represented by K, that is:
Wherein, P represents load, and δ represents the deformation.
If the load of the elastic unit increases as the deformation increases, stiffness is positive; if it does not change with the deformation increased, stiffness is zero; and if it does not increase but decrease as the deformation increases, stiffness is negative.
P(δ)=Pv(δ)+P0(δ)=F (2)
The relation between the elastic force and deformation of the spring can be deduced from equation (2), as shown in
Taking a derivative on the two sides of equation (2) with respect to δ, the following equation (3) can be deduced:
Wherein, the stiffnesses of the positive stiffness spring A and the negative stiffness spring B are k0 and kv, and the stiffness of the combined spring is K.
It can be seen from
In addition, the restoring force f of the spring can be deduced from the geometric relationship in
f=k
v
x+2αk0(L0−L)sin θ (4)
Wherein,
Since α=k0/kv, substitute L0, L into equation (4), and in combination with sin θ=(h0−x)/L, it can be derived that:
Both sides of equation (5) divided by L0kv to be dimensionless, that is,
{circumflex over (f)}={circumflex over (x)}+2α(√{square root over (1−γ2)}−{circumflex over (x)}){[{circumflex over (x)}2−2{circumflex over (x)}√{square root over (1−γ2)}+1]−1/2−1} (6)
Both sides of equation (6) divided by displacement x, the stiffness in a dimensionless form can be derived:
It can be derived form equation (7) that when the stiffness of the system k is minimal (equal to 0), {circumflex over (x)}==√{square root over (1−γ2)}. Here, when the initial dip angle is given, let the above equation to be zero, the unique stiffness ratio αQZS of the quasi-zero stiffness can be solved, that is:
And, the quasi-zero stiffness point is located at {circumflex over (x)}==√{square root over (1−γ2)}, that is, at {circumflex over (x)}=√{square root over (1−γ2)}.
Also, it can be known that the initial dip angle of negative stiffness spring can be solved when the stiffness ratio of the system is given, and the relationship is represented as:
And, the quasi-zero stiffness point is located at {circumflex over (x)}==√{square root over (1−γQZS2)}
In the present embodiment, the simplified model is shown in
A simulation is performed based on the design parameters utilizing ABAQUS. Considering the ball as a rigid body, the stiffness of the vertical spring is 226.3 N/m, the stiffness of the oblique spring is 113.15 N/m, and the length of each of the springs is 0.2 m, and the dip angle of the oblique spring is 60°. A concentrated load of 100 N is applied at the reference point of the rigid body. Through static force analysis, a force-time curve and a displacement-time curve are calculated and obtained, and further in combination with a time-force curve, a force-displacement curve is derived. From the force-displacement curve it can be seen that when the load is increased to 39 N, the slope of the curve tends to be 0 which means that the stiffness is getting close to 0 while the displacement of the spring is 0.152 m. When the load is increased to 40 N, the displacement of the ball is 0.207 m, that is, when the load increases by 1 N, the displacement increases by 0.055 m. It can be determined that the stiffness of the system is rather small when the displacement is in a range of 0.152-0.207 m, and the analytic solution xêl0=0.173 m also falls in this range, verifying the correctness of the simulation, and then it can be determined that the ball can be in a quasi-zero stiffness state when only under gravity. The curves of restoring force of the negative stiffness spring and the positive stiffness spring can be calculated and obtained which show that, at t=0.39 s, the restoring force of the negative stiffness spring decreases rapidly and the restoring force of the positive stiffness spring increases rapidly and the static force balance of the ball can be achieved, thus the vertical displacement increases sharply at t=0.39 s. Then, it can be determined that the above structure can be applied in the gravity balancing structure of the micropositioner.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
201210537786.1 | Dec 2012 | CN | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
PCT/CN2013/088753 | 12/6/2013 | WO | 00 |