Note: Single-polarity high-voltage amplifier to drive coarse-approach slip-stick piezoelectric motors

Abstract

Scanning probe microscopies typically rely on coarse-approach slip-stick piezoelectric motors that work by exciting piezoelectric stacks with sawtooth signals of hundreds of V and some kHz. For this application, we introduce a single-polarity high-voltage amplifier based on discrete MOSFET-technology components with improved output current desirable for low-temperature actuation. The amplifier has an output signal of 600 V, 100 mA output current, noise level below 2 μV/2√Hz⁠, 4 kHz high-voltage bandwidth, 2 V/μs slew-rate, and rise and fall times of 80 μs (when loaded with 30 nF). The circuit was successfully applied to drive a home-made scanning tunnelling microscope.