Design of a Rectangular-Type Voice Coil Actuator for Frame Vibration Compensation

Precision motion stages used in the manufacturing process of flat-panel displays have inevitably low settling performance due to their huge mass and bulky structures. In order to improve the settling performance, several methods of frame vibration compensation have been developed so far. These methods are used to cancel the vibration by imposing a counter force or modifying the resonance mode of the frame of the stage. To compensate the frame vibration, high force actuators are required. In this paper, a mighty voice coil actuator is proposed to generate the counter force against the frame vibration. The proposed voice coil actuator has an axis-symmetric rectangular structure to achieve a large force with simple and low cost fabrication. Also, the voice coil actuator allows radial clearance up to ${\pm}4mm$. Using an optimized design process and a magnetic circuit model, the power consumption is minimized while the required force is obtained. With a power of 322 W, the VCA has been designed to have a maximum force of 574 N with a force constant of 164 N/A. Experimental results verified the force constant of the fabricated voice coil actuator is well matched with the designed value.