# Design and Experimental Validation of a Flexible-Hinge-Based Manual Mechanism for Micro/Nano-Displacement Scaling

## TL;DR

This paper presents a low-cost manual mechanism for achieving micro and nano-scale displacements using flexible hinges and experimental validation.

## Contribution

A novel manual micro/nano-displacement platform with flexible hinge transmission and displacement scaling is designed and experimentally validated.

## Key findings

- The nano-output platform achieves a travel range of 0–16 μm when the micrometer input is 0–1 mm.
- The minimum displacement output is 35.4 nm with a 2 μm input using a differential head.
- The platform shows high consistency between theoretical, simulated, and experimental reduction multiples.

## Abstract

In this paper, a low-cost manual micro- and nano-displacement adjustment mechanism is proposed, based on the principle of flexible hinge transmission and micro-displacement scaling. The manual micro- and nano-displacement platform consists of a micrometer input platform, a nano-output platform, a differential head, and a strain displacement sensor. Firstly, a micro-displacement reduction mechanism based on a flexible beam triangular mechanism and a compact asymmetric flexible beam guiding mechanism are proposed, and a theoretical model is established for static mechanical characteristics, such as the displacement reduction multiplier, guiding stiffness, maximum stress, etc., and this is analyzed and verified by finite element simulation. The software and hardware system of the strain displacement sensor is designed and developed, and the calibration experiments of the strain displacement sensor are completed. Finally, the micro-displacement reduction times, resolution, stability, repeat positioning accuracy, load capacity and travel of the manual micro–nano-displacement platform were analyzed and experimented. The results show that when the input range of the micrometer input platform is 0–1 mm, the travel of the nano-output platform is about 0–16 μm; when a differential head with a step resolution of 2 μm is used to input 2 μm micro-displacement, the minimum displacement output of the nano-output platform is about 35.4 nm; the theoretical and simulated values of the reduction multiple of the micro–nano-displacement are 57.29 and 56.69, respectively; the calibration experiment is performed by the self-developed strain sensors, and capacitive displacement sensors measured the reduction multiples of 57.74 and 62.67, respectively, with high consistency; the vibration range of the platform after the displacement adjustment is about ±30 nm, and the load of 0–300 g has less influence on the output characteristics of the platform.