Cryo-researchers are all too familiar with the unreliability and high heat dissipation of conventional nanopositioners when operating in cryogenic environments. These problems are inherent to the stick-slip driving mechanism that is used in the nanoactuators currently available in the market. At cryogenic temperatures, the performance of the piezo-actuators drops dramatically, and the stick-slip mechanism is not able to generate sufficient force to drive the nanopositioner. This results in unpredictable behavior or malfunction of nanopositioners in the cryostat leading to loss of valuable experimentation time. Furthermore, the stick-slip mechanism is fundamentally based on friction and intrinsically generates a lot of thermal energy. This excess heat must be pumped out prior the next measurement, also consuming valuable experimentation time.
Onnes Technologies has overcome these problems by developing a novel walking-based drive mechanism from the ground up with a specific focus on high reliability and low heat dissipation at cryogenic conditions. This novel design has some other advantages, such as high driving force, high stiffness, and an integrated scanning function.
An additional feature of our cryo-walker mechanism is that it can be powered by standard cryo-compatible wiring. This eliminates the well-known of wiring complexities associated with conventional stick-slip nanopositioners.
The Arktika is equipped with an integrated a capacitive position sensor enabling position readout with high resolution and low dissipation.
- High reliability at milliK (100% uptime)
- Low heat dissipation
- Large stepping range with integrated sub-nm scanning function
- High hold and drive force (approximately 5N)
- High stiffness
- Integrated capacitive position sensor
- Standard cryo-compatible wiring
- Compact form factor 34 x 30 x 30 (HxWxD mm)
