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Need To Purchase Nanopositioning Software? 3 Things To Consider Before You Make Your Purchase

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If you need to purchase nanopositioning software, there are many things you must consider before you make the purchase. This will ensure that your software that will work well for your company. Below are three of these things so you can get started.

1. Travel Range

The travel range is how far a stage can move on its axis. When considering this, consider the difference between the maximum distance and the position noise. Generally, the noise of a nanopositioning state will be louder with a longer distance.

You also have to consider how long you want the travel to be. This is because a longer travel may have an effect on the speed of the nanopositioning software. Because of this, if speed is important, you need to use a shorter travel range.

2. Controller

Another thing to consider is the controller used for the nanopositioning. The controller is used for closed-loop control and gives feedback to the piezo every few microseconds.

When choosing a controller, first know how many axes each stage has. A controller can equal the same number of axes, but it cannot be under this amount. It is also okay if a controller has more than the number of axes.

If you will use an open loop control, you can also use a piezo driver. You should only use this if accuracy is not an issue, however. Computer software is used along with the controller to make things much easier for you when setting the load times.

3. System Interface

The system interface is how the system communicates with the controller. The most common way is to scan using the controller's analog inputs. Each channel on the system has analog control, along with a sensor, that monitors the connectors. There has to be a certain amount of voltage range to have the maximum travel distance correct. If needed, calibration can be used for the stages if you need to use other input ranges.

Other ways you can interface with the system is using USB, parallel ports, FTDI drivers, and Digital I/O. All of these work well no matter what programming language is used to write the system interface. USB is often used because with this connection you can command the position, read positions, and change control numbers.

Talk with a company that has nanopositioning software for sale; they can answer any questions you may have. They can also go over the above information with you in more detail.


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