A miniature gripper system for optical fiber handling

摘要

This paper presents the development of a gripper system for optical fiber handling. The gripper, driven by a stack PZT actuator, is able to apply a precise gripping force through micro strain gauges instrumented on its fingers. Due to a special monolithic flexure-based mechanism, the gripper allows zero-backlash motion with an opening range of up to 800 μm. These features make the gripper suitable for the application of photonics assembly tasks, such as pigtailing and fiber array assembly processes, where very high resolution of motion and accurate force control are required.