Auburn, Mass. – The M-687 motorized microscope XY stage for inverted microscopes from PI is more compact and stable than traditional computer controllable microscope stages, due to its fully integrated, miniaturized ceramic linear drives. The M-687 is delivered as a complete system including a controller, joystick and software. 

The self-clamping ceramic linear motors in the M-687 XY positioner are not only more compact than electromagnetic motors, but also provide significantly higher positional stability. The reasons are that once in place, no energy is consumed to hold position (no heat dissipation). Also, there are no leadscrews that heat up due to friction during motion and cause drift cooling down once the motion stops. There is also no creep caused by lubricant flow in the drive mechanism. The exceptional stability is a great advantage in long term imaging applications.

In addition to the high-precision motors, integrated, 100-nm resolution linear encoders provide direct position feedback to the controller allowing closed-loop operation with high accuracy.

Other features include a constant velocity even at low speeds to 10 microns/sec, speeds up to 120 mm/sec, and high precision with 100 nanometer resolution linear encoders.

A variety of accessories such as slides holders, petri dish holders, multi-well plate holders are also available, as well as high-speed Piezo-Z nanopositioning stages for 3D microscopy, image stack acquisition, or fast auto-focus. PI also provides XYZ piezo nanopositioning flexure stages for Super-Resolution (SR) microscopy.

For more information, visit http://www.physikinstrumente.com/en.