Cedrat Technologies, innovation in mechatronics

For more than 20 years, CTEC has been involved in various space missions, delivering products designed for severe environment conditions (vibrations, shocks, vacuum, humidity, wide thermal range including cryogenic). Eddy current sensor (ECS) technology, using printed circuit board (PCB) for printed coils, provides both a good resolution/accuracy and a good robustness against temperature variations.These sensors are available commercially off the shelf (COTS).

The XY200M is an XY piezo stage coming from CEDRAT TECHNOLOGIES lab and which was newly designed according to space needs defined with CNES (the French space agency). This XY stage benefi ts from the heritage of a former XY stage developed for ESA (European Space Agency) in the frame of Rosetta / Midas space mission which will launch in the beginning of 2003. It is based on two pairs of APA200M, Amplifi ed Piezo Actuators displaying 200 µm of stroke each, arranged in cross configuration around a central ring.

The XY25XS stage is an original micro positioning mechanism developed, built and marketed by CEDRAT TECHNOLOGIES. This mechanism relieds on the Amplified Piezo Actuators (APA) technology patented by CTEC

The MIDAS (Micro Imaging Dust Analysis System) instrument jointly developed by IWF Graz (AT) and the Solar Space Division of ESA/ESTEC (NL) will flow on ROSETTA and will analyse the dust of the 46P/Wirtanen cometa using an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM).

Several classes of low voltage piezo actuators have been developed by CEDRAT TECHNOLOGIES to cover precise positioning needs and / or fast. This paper discusses the ability of these actuators to cover these needs and illustrates this through various applications (mechanisms, shock absorbers, valves) in the fields of instrumentation, space, aeronautics and automotive.

The ROSETTA/MIDAS space mission intends to analyze the dust resulting from the Wirtanen comet using an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). To scan the dust, an extremely fine mechanism able to produce displacement’s accuracy in the sub-micrometer range with a limited mass, is required. The only technology which can meet this specification is the piezoelectric actuator associated to capacitive displacement sensors, which displays several advantages : solid state design, which means no friction, noise limited by the driving electronic, ...

The ROSETTA/MIDAS mission of the Europeans Space Agency (ESA) intends to study the dust collected from the Wirtanen comet using an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). This instrument utilzes an XY piezoelectric stage to achieve precise positioning in two in-plane orthogonal directions, and a Z actuator to support the needles for the analyses of dust particles in the out-of-plane direction.