There is a constant drive to make the next generation machines in the semiconductor industry more precise and faster. For this machines with a high repeatability, good dynamics and long lifetime are needed. Compliant mechanisms are suitable candidates to be used in this kind of machines because they can be manufactured monolithically, don’t wear out over time and do not suffer from backlash which makes them ideal for precision mechanisms. However, in these machines parasitic motions and cross-axis couplings are present. These unwanted motions reduce the precision and increases the control complexity respectively.

Strategies presented in literature to compensate for unwanted motions are summarized in the first part of this report. These strategies are evaluated and by combining two promising strategies a new compensation strategy is proposed. The second part of this report focusses on this new strategy. Using this new strategy a constant stiffness linear joint, a near zero parasitic motion translational guide with well constraint uncontrollable masses and a decoupled 2-DoF mechanism are synthesized. All these case studies needed to have a large range of motion because many effective strategies for small range of motion mechanisms are available in literature.