The ZVR rigidly supports and drives the payload at three points (separated by 120 degrees) along the outer circumference of the stage. Ordinary designs use a single cam, wedge, or screw located at the center of the stage. Newport’s three point design with an inline guide and drive, has advantages for applications that have slight to extreme unbalanced loading such as wafer probing, which can have vertical forces applied at locations along the outer edges of the chuck. Angular deflections due to these off-center loads are minimized and binding during vertical motion is eliminated.

Vertical motion is achieved with an open-loop stepper motor, and rotary motion is provided by a closed-loop DC motor with an ultra-high resolution 8,000 cts/rev rotary encoder. The rotary DC motor version of this stage is the recommended choice for applications requiring higher rotary speed and repeatability.

Newport guarantees specification values which are measured and recorded following ASME B5.57 and ISO 230-2 standards. The typical performance values are two times better than the guaranteed specifications.