Nanopositioning uses advanced equipment to move objects just a few nanometres at a time. Queensgate Instruments, a leader in producing high-speed, high-precision nanopositioning systems and nanodisplacement sensors wanted to improve the efficacy of its products in order to maintain its competitive edge and meet the increasing customer demand for higher precision. Queensgate wanted to improve their ability to adjust tiny movements in multiple directions, fix uneven performance and make systems that move more smoothly and accurately.
Queensgate partnered with the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) through the Analysis for Innovators (A4I) programme to address the key challenges of correcting spatial and linearity errors, improving parallel kinematic technology and validating their product performance claims.
The A4I programme gave Queensgate access to NPL’s full range of expertise, technology, and advanced testing facilities. NPL identified errors, then measured and characterised them in our dimensional nanometrology laboratory and subsequently developed the necessary algorithms to correct them. Since Queensgate lacked the in-house mathematical expertise required, they relied on NPL’s data science capabilities to create these algorithms. Once the corrections were integrated into Queensgate's products, NPL rigorously tested the updated systems to validate the enhanced accuracy, ensuring the improvements were robust and reliable. Having worked with NPL before, Queensgate trusted our expertise and state-of-the-art equipment for traceable validation.
“Using our equipment in NPL’s laboratories we have been able to generate a whole wealth of data that Queensgate cannot get with their own facilities,” explained Andrew Yacoot, a Principal Scientist at NPL. He added, “our mathematical lead scientist on the project worked on similar problems at a much larger scale so they were able to bring a tremendous wealth of experience applying mathematical solutions to complex positioning problems, benefitting both NPL and Queensgate.”
Resolving these challenges was essential for Queensgate to maintain its market leadership in the highly competitive field of nanopositioning, and to continue its growth trajectory through improvements to its existing products.
“Queensgate has grown its annual turnover six-fold since we were acquired five years ago and this work has been fundamental to maintaining that growth over the past two years,” explains Craig Goodman, Product Manager at Queensgate. “NPL applied its nanometrology expertise and deep data science knowledge to help measure and compensate for minute errors that affect product accuracy. We fully expect these improvements to help increase sales of Queensgate products. Over the next 24 months, sales of products that utilise these improvements could easily account for 25 to 50% of our revenue and I would hope to see total revenue grow by more than 50% in the same period.”
The project also unlocked new opportunities from the parallel kinematic algorithms created in partnership with NPL. These have been used to produce the largest nanopositioning stage Queensgate has ever manufactured, a key piece of instrumentation supporting the manufacture of micro-LEDs, which are essential for the development of virtual reality and augmented reality screens and the next generation of smartwatches and smartphones.
Whilst the project is already delivering direct benefits to Queensgate, it could have a much larger influence on hundreds of businesses in the future according to Yacoot. “The advancements we have achieved in nanopositioning could have a significant positive impact on the wider industry, influencing future technological developments in related fields. There are long term opportunities for this work to have a bearing on products and services from multiple sectors including the setting of new industry standards for semiconductor manufacturing and VR/AR technologies in the future."
The project’s impact is also being felt at a local level. The factory that manufactures Queensgate’s products is based an economically-deprived area in Devon, and provides high-skilled jobs to the local population. The collaboration with NPL has created growth opportunities that will sustain and expand high-skilled jobs in Devon for at least the next 18 months.
The value from this A4I project is directly feeding into the emergence and application of these exciting new technologies and their future use by millions of people around the world. Without collaborative innovation through the A4I programme this critical enabling product would not have been possible. We are expecting to see millions of pounds of financial return from this one technology alone in the coming years.
Craig Goodman, Product Manager - Queensgate