High dynamic magnetic transport system for substrate alignment

Abstract Optical waveguides can be manufactured using transfer processes. Therefore, the substrate needs to be transported and precisely aligned between different process steps. To achieve high productivity, a high dynamic transport system is necessary. However, for conventional transport systems, the dynamic positioning accuracy is limited due to friction of the contact-based guides. Thus, a friction-free transport system has the potential to achieve a higher dynamic positioning accuracy. In this paper a novel friction-free transport system with magnetic guide is presented. Its impressive load capacity and high dynamics have been verified through experiments. Based on the experimental data, the transport system is capable of providing loads of up to approximately 2000 N to meet printing requirements and a bandwidth of 75.0 Hz was achieved, which is 125% higher than the contact-based device.