BUILDING on the success of the U500 active alignment power scanning routines, Aerotech has now ported the power scanning routines and Virtual Pivot Point software to the new A3200 software-only controller.
Available from Lastek , this controller employs a real-time kernel inside Windows 2000/XP/NT instead of hardware controller cards.
The A3200 communicates via an IEEE-1394 FireWire link to the new NPaq 6-axis digital drive rack. Five of Aerotech's new 6-axis NPaqs can be linked and controlled over a single FireWire connection.
This configuration simplifies the PC and cabling configuration as well as reducing the drive-rack height from 6U to 3U.
This simplifies the control architecture and gives machine builders more flexibility to control alignment stages, part handling, bonding, and camera stages from the same controller software package.