Newport has introduces its XPS-DRVP1, an XPS-compatible driver card for the company's piezoelectric stack-based NanoPositioning line of sub-nanometre resolution stages. The XPS-DRVP1 complements the other XPS driver cards designed to drive the traditional DC or stepper motor micro-positioning products, allowing control of almost all of Newport’s motion products with the XPS controller. The XPS-DRVP1 is easy to install and eliminates the need for either an XPS pass-through card or an independent piezo-stack driver. The XPS-DRVP1 permits a wider variety of precision motion control positioning applications than was previously possible.
According to Newport, the XPS-compatible controller works with all –D versions of its NanoPositioners. An erasable programmable read only memory (EPROM) stores the stage parameters in the connector, which also has embedded ESP plug-and-play technology tp auto-upload the stage ID to the XPS along with all necessary stage settings.
The single-axis XPS-DRVP1 driver features 60mA peak current (operating from -10V to 130V), with an internal loop rate of 4kHz. For added flexibility, it can drive both open loop and closed loop NanoPositioning stages equipped with strain gage position sensors, offering dynamic performance similar to that of Newport’s NPC3 controller.