There are multiple configurations of the Piezo system. It can come in 1 axis, 2 axis or 3 axis, with motion ranges of 50um to 100um. The sections below present all these options.

50um range 2 axis

Introduction

The Mantis piezo driver was designed to operate with piezoceramic tubes similar to the ones produced and distributed by Boston Piezo Optics (open product page). These piezo tubes are made of 4 quadrants opposing each others in pairs. Each pair produces a displacement in one axis. Each pair is connected to one BNC output of the Mantis piezo driver.

Input side of the driver

The Mantis piezo driver takes 5V DC in (up to 1.5A).

If the orange LED is ON, the power supply works correctly. If not, you probably need to change the power supply.

The two gold BNC connectors are DC control inputs from a DAQ (data acquisition card) or from a signal generator. The full input range is 3.8V (min = 0.7V and max = 4.5V). They each control one axis of the piezo actuator.

5V DC in (up to 1.5A) power supply.

Output side of the driver

The output side of the box, with the ON/OFF button.

When the driver is powered ON the LED in the middle turns green. If not, see if the orange LED on the input side is let. If not, check the power supply.

The output female (left) connector receives its male counterpart below.

Male output connector. Brings high voltage to the piezo actuator (See the Piezo actuator section)

The output connector is plugged simply by pushing it in. The orientation is fixed, there is only one way to push it in.

To disconnect simply pull it out.

50um range 3 axis

Not yet ready…

100um range one axis

Not yet ready…

100um range x and 50um range y

Not yet ready…

100um range xy and 50um range y

Not yet ready…

Piezo actuator

The piezo actuator can come in 2 configurations: 1 or 2 axis or 3 axis

2 (or 1) axis piezo actuator

The 2 axis Mantis piezo actuator was designed to operate with a piezoceramic tube similar to the ones produced and distributed by Boston Piezo Optics (open product page). These piezo tubes are made of 4 quadrants opposing each others in pairs. Each pair produces a displacement in one axis. The pairs operate independent of each other giving the possibility to operate in a single-axe or bi-axe mode.

The piezoceramic tube is assembled into a device with functional parts (adapters) for attaching tools to it (a glass needle for example), or to attach itself to other tools or instruments.

3D model of the piezo actuator - open 3D model

The piezo actuator has 5 wires sticking out of it. For the 50um range 2 axis configuration one wire is the ground. The other 4 are connected to each one of the 4 quadrants of the piezo tube (see piezo tube in the 3D model above).

Each axis is driven by 2 opposite quadrants, connected to 2 wires. See more instructions in the last row below.

Piezoceramic tube inside the actuator assembly.

Different adapters can be mounted on the piezo tube, to grip different tools, like in this picture below.

WARNING! Isolate the wires ends not connected.

Wire connections to the piezo actuator. See more on the Piezo actuator section.

Brown and White are ground.
Pink and Blue for Channel B+ and B-, respectively.
Yellow and Grey for Channel A+ and A-, respectively.

WARNING! Always turn off the power before working on the given circuit to avoid electrical shock.

3ax piezo actuator

edit

Uses the same wire connections as the 2 axis one. The only thing that changes is a piezo stack for an extra axe. This stack has 50 microns range. See Z-axe spring specifications.

Long range low cost 1ax piezo actuator

This actuator is still in prototyping stage. Open main doc.

Connections to the (DAQ) card

The 2 axis 50um range piezo driver takes in DC voltage on a ~3.8V-0.2 range, min = 0.7+0.1 and max = 4.5-0.1.. A DAQ (data acquisition card) or a signal generator is needed to drive it.

In order to drive 2 axis one needs 2 analog outputs. Simply connect each analog out to the BNC input connectors of the piezo driver.

The center wire of the BNC is connected to an analog out of the DAQ card. The analog out ground pin of the DAQ card is connected to the casing.

The pictures below show 2 examples of DAQ cards we are using in our labs. The red wire goes to the middle of the BNC cable and the black one goes to ground.

Labjack DAC card

Frederic’s DAQ card, see webpage.

LabView program

We are using the IAC’s LabView platform

See more on the LabView program HERE.

SENSORICA Piezo LabView Driver debugging reports

Piezo 1x driver.JPG