Newport XMS160 Ultra Precision Motorized Linear Stage 160mm Linear Motor XPS

Newport XMS160 Ultra Precision Motorized Linear Stage 160mm Linear Motor XPS: Nanometer-Class Positioning for Demanding Photonics and Metrology

The Newport XMS160 Ultra Precision Motorized Linear Stage 160mm Linear Motor XPS is a direct-drive linear motor stage built for applications where positioning accuracy, repeatability, and smoothness of motion are limiting factors. With 160 mm of travel and ironless linear motor drive, it is designed for photonics alignment, semiconductor inspection, interferometry, and precision metrology where conventional ball-screw stages introduce too much cogging, backlash, or thermal drift.

Key Features and Benefits of the Newport XMS160 Ultra Precision Motorized Linear Stage 160mm Linear Motor XPS

• 160 mm travel range — Long enough for full-wafer scans, multi-port photonic device alignment, and extended interferometric measurements without staging multiple axes.
• Ironless linear motor drive — Eliminates the cogging and torque ripple of iron-core motors, producing exceptionally smooth velocity profiles at low speeds.
• Sub-nanometer minimum incremental motion — Resolves the finest alignment steps needed for fiber-to-chip coupling and high-NA optical alignment.
• ±25 nm bidirectional repeatability — Returns to a commanded position consistently, which is essential for closed-loop scanning and automated test routines.
• High-accuracy linear encoder — Direct position feedback eliminates the lead-screw error budget that plagues ball-screw stages.
• Air-bearing-class smoothness without air — Magnetic preload and precision crossed-roller bearings deliver near-air-bearing motion quality with standard utilities.
• XPS controller compatible — Drops directly into Newport's XPS-D and XPS-RL motion controllers for multi-axis coordinated motion and PVT trajectories.
• Low profile and stackable — Designed for XY and XYZ stacking to build multi-axis precision systems within a compact footprint.

Advanced Capabilities

The ironless linear motor is the defining engineering choice in this stage. Iron-core motors are efficient but produce cogging torque as the armature passes magnet poles, which shows up as velocity ripple at low speeds. For applications like silicon photonics alignment — where the stage might be moving at micrometers per second while a tunable laser sweeps and a power meter logs coupling efficiency — that ripple corrupts the measurement. An ironless coil has no magnetic detent and produces virtually no cogging, which is why the XMS160 can scan smoothly enough to resolve coupling features that would be lost on a conventional stage.

The XPS controller pairing matters too. The XPS family supports PVT (position-velocity-time) trajectory programming, on-the-fly trigger output tied to encoder position, and gathering of position data at controller cycle rates. Combined with the XMS160's encoder feedback, this means you can build a scanning measurement where the data point capture is locked to actual stage position rather than commanded position — eliminating the trajectory error that turns scan data into noise. For interferometry, near-field scanning, and any measurement where the stage motion is part of the measurement, this distinction is everything.

Calibration and Quality Assurance

Every Newport XMS160 is calibrated prior to shipping to OEM specifications. The order includes a Calibration Certificate, Calibration Label, and full Calibration Data. This means the stage arrives traceable, audit-ready, and ready to use straight out of the box — no need to schedule a calibration cycle before putting it into service.

Specifications