C-Drive Amplifiers for Motorized Stages

Irvine, CA., April 23, 2003. Newport's new C-Drive Amplifiers are an easy and cost-efficient way for customers interested in Newport motorized positioners to retain their existing motion controllers, and avoid having to buy a new controller. The C-Drive series amplifiers are versatile, distributed, general-purpose amplifiers optimized to drive Newport's motorized stages and actuators.

The C-Drive allows operation of Newport's positioning products from a variety of widely used motion controllers including those of National Instruments, Delta-Tau and MEI, and Newport's own high performance PCI card controller ESP6000.

The compact, industrial, robust, stand-alone package of the C-Drive can be easily integrated into custom machines. For added convenience and fast prototyping, Newport also offers a full set of complementary accessories like cables, power supplies, and a cable break-out-box for easy interfacing with the ESP6000 motion controller.

The first set of the C-Drive series is comprised of a DC brush servo amplifier (CDR-DCB) and a stepper motor amplifier (CDR-STEP), which both operate from +48 VDC power. Built with surface mount technology, these amplifiers offer a full complement of features for DC brush and stepper motor control. They can drive Newport's positioners with motors up to 4A and are easily user-configurable (software included) via RS-232 serial interface.

MOSFET output stages deliver four-quadrant power for bi-directional acceleration and deceleration of motors. Analog command input signals are industrial standard ±10 VDC for DC brush motor control. Logic signals are all optically isolated from the power supply to eliminate potential ground-loop problems. Current limits provide protection for motors while optimizing acceleration characteristics.

For more information, visit www.newport.com .

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