Thermal effects in precision systems: Design considerations, modelling, compensation and validation techniques

In common high-end precision systems, thermal effects, in general, play a very important role with respect to the final performance of the system. Mainly driven by miniaturization, performance and reliability enhancement, the requirements of these systems have enormously increased over the last few decades. To stimulate exchange of knowledge and cooperation in the precision engineering community a special interest group was initiated by the Euspen. During a meeting in 2006 it turned out that thermal effects occur in many different applications and in all forms. The complexity of the thermal effects and the high impact on the performance of systems motivated the group to organize a conference in 2007. All kinds of applications were mentioned, starting from traditional machine tools up to next-generation lithography tools and analysis tools. The huge diversity of the thermal issues in all kinds of market segments was also very clearly discussed.