Nanopositioning expert, Queensgate, has announced the launch of the NanoScan OP800 piezo objective scanner. Its unique mechanical design together with integral capacitive feedback sensors offer users market-leading positioning accuracy, while its stiff construction allows the standard selectable tuning pre-sets to support a range of objectives from 150 g to 500 g. This makes it highly versatile for use in a wide range of applications in life sciences and industry.
The OP800 offers 800 µm of closed-loop travel range for easier operation within the piezo focus range without adjusting the sample. It also allows deeper Z-stacks to be completed: ideal for multiphoton imaging techniques. Auto-calibration on power-up automatically offsets the range to correct for load and environmental changes to maintain the full 800 µm travel.
It is flexure-guided with built-in capacitive position feedback. This provides high linearity of motion and market-leading repeatability of just 5 nm, ensuring consistency between multiple Z stacks. Small rotational errors help ensure the full field of view stays in focus.
Images are captured rapidly thanks to the fast step-settle times. Constant velocity mode operation allows rapid precision ramping to form very quick image stacks over long ranges. This is several times faster than conventional position control can achieve.
As is standard with Queensgate stages, the OP800 offers true plug-and-play capability without the need to match controllers. Both digital and analog interfacing are easy to set up, while the low-noise, high-powered digital electronics allow rapid stepping. The OP800 is suitable for use in life sciences, materials and semiconductor applications, such as optical sectioning, surface analysis, wafer inspection and scanning interferometry.
