PI (Physik Instrumente) provides the broadest and deepest portfolio of precision motion technologies in the world. PI USA complies with the US laws for export controlled technologies.
PI is a privately held company that designs and manufactures world-class precision motion and automation systems including air bearings, hexapods, and piezo drives at locations in North America, Europe, and Asia. The company was founded 5 decades ago and today employs more than 1700 people worldwide.
Our customers are leaders in high-tech industries and research institutes in fields including photonics, life-sciences, semiconductors and aerospace and our solutions have enabled them to make countless breakthrough developments and discoveries.
PI (Physik Instrumente) LP, the US operation of the PI Group, operates five facilities in North America, with its head office in Auburn, MA and additional design and manufacturing facilities in New England.
PI USA is ITAR registered and equipped to handle your COTS or custom precision motion control / piezo / nanopositioning systems requirements. A published price list is available on request.
Los Angeles Area
5420 Trabuco Road, Suite 100
Irvine, CA 92620-5743
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Silicon Valley Tech Cener
48389 Fremont Boulevard, Suite 108
Fremont, CA 94538
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To contact Human Resources about a non-job opening related issue, send an email to hr.us@pi-usa.us or call us at 508-832-3456 x242. Resumes sent via email will not be considered for job openings.
PI USA Air Bearing Group: Building on Decades of Experience with Industrial Automation for 24/7 Operation
PI USA has made significant investments for the design and manufacture of air bearing positioning products. To keep up with the growth, a new facility in Hopkinton, MA was added to the existing company structure to host PI’s engineering and manufacturing group at the end of 2014. Around the same time, PI USA finalized the purchase agreement with Nelson Air Corp of Nashua, NH, a small but highly specialized manufacturer of air bearings and air bearing stages located about an hour north of Auburn.
The PI Nashua group utilizes a number of modern Haas CNC machines and high precision Okamoto grinders and now works closely with the PI Hopkinton team. The PI Hopkinton team is headed by Phil Greene, former VP of engineering for Danaher / Dover Instruments. Phil and his team have designed and built hundreds of air bearing systems for industrial automation in applications ranging from semiconductor metrology to flat panel inspection and data storage.Together with the acquisition of Nelson Air, PI USA is building on three decades of air bearing experience, including design, controls, and manufacturing from the ground up. PI’s purchase of ACS Motion Control in 2017 was another piece to the puzzle of delivering world-class precision motion and automation systems.
PI’s in-house engineered systems and components have enabled customers around the world to increase their productivity and technological advantage for 5 decades. A sample of collaborative work with our customers can be see in the videos below. With a large basis of standard precision motion products and proven methodologies, PI is in the position to quickly modify existing designs or provide a fully customized OEM solution to fit the exact requirements of your application from the whole motion range from finger-tip sized nano-positioners to large scale stages with long travel ranges, through a plethora of different drives and guiding systems.
PI's Nanopositioning products are world-known for their precision. To continuously improve our products and to verify the performance, we have designed world-class nanometrology labs, with six-fold-isolation, on a separated foundation in the basement of the factory.
Sub-nanometer resolution measurements not only require highest precision measuring equipment (we use world-class laser interferometers and capacitive sensors), but also an environment with extremely high temperature stability and total absence of vibration. The acoustic sound waves of a conversation alone can excite vibration in the range of several 10 nanometers. Vault-like doors keep noise out of our nanometrology labs.
Learn more about Metrology at PI
In January 2017, PI acquired the majority shares of ACS Motion Control. More information
PI miCos was founded in 1990 and became a member of the PI family in late 2011. After its recent expansion, PI miCos has 50,000 square ft to focus on novel product and systems development. PI miCos employs over 60 PhDs, engineers and physicists, as well as highly qualified technicians with specialties in motion control, robotics and optics. Equipped with state of the art machines, the in-house precision machine shop manufactures systems and components with high-precision and superior quality. After in-house assembly, every product is inspected by quality department before it is delivered to the customer.
PI Ceramic: Custom Piezo Ceramic Production Capabilities for Highest Performance Actuator and Sensor Sub-Assemblies
PI Ceramic, a member of the PI family of companies, currently employs more than 330 people dedicated to designing and manufacturing the highest quality piezo ceramic assemblies.
Production equipment includes tape casting, sputtering, automated metallization, grinding and cutting machines.
PI Ceramic's ceramic-insulated multilayer PZT actuators passed a 100 billion cycle stress test by JPL/NASA and are used on the Mars Rover Curiosity.
Learn more about PI Ceramic’s large selection of Piezo Transducers for Sensing and Ultrasound, including PZT and lead free materials. Additional application articles on piezo transducers can be found in our technology blog.
Nanopositioning / Motion Control / Piezo Technology
PI's Nanopositioning products have won many international industry awards for innovative design. Examples are the Hexapod 6 Degree-of-Freedom Micropositioning and Alignment System, the ultra-high resolution Piezoelectric Scanning Stages and Active Optics (Beam Steering Systems). The PI line of piezoelectric actuators and nanopositioning stages are among the most sophisticated nanopositioning systems in the world, allowing extremely precise motion in the shortest possible time.
Watch PI product and technology videos and animations Products Overview
