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.

The stepper motor version is a more economical version for less demanding applications. Instead of encoder feedback, a stepper motor reaches a position by the number of commanded steps. An advantage of stepper motors is that full torque is still provided even when idle. The ZVR stages are ESP-compatible, allowing the user to take advantage of Newport's smart-stage features when used with Newport controllers.

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.