Physik Instrumente (PI) GmbH
Karlsruhe, Germany precision motion maker founded 1970; builds piezo actuators, nanopositioning stages, and hexapod robots; being acquired by HOERBIGER in 2026.
Physik Instrumente (PI) SE & Co. KG designs and manufactures precision motion and positioning equipment from its headquarters in Karlsruhe, Germany. Physicist Karl Spanner founded the company in 1970 as a spin-off from the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching, moving its base to Karlsruhe in 2000. In December 2025 PI's owners agreed to sell the company to HOERBIGER, a diversified technology group; the deal was expected to close in the first quarter of 2026, with PI continuing to operate under its own name as a Positioning Division.
The product line spans piezoelectric actuators marketed under the PiezoWalk, PiezoMike and PiezoMove names, Q-Motion piezo inertia motors, PIMag electromagnetic direct drives, NEXLINE piezo walking drives used in semiconductor lithography tools, nanopositioning flexure stages, motorized linear and rotary stages, and hexapod six-degree-of-freedom parallel-kinematic platforms applied to wafer alignment, fiber-optic coupling and multi-axis micro-assembly. Its PI Ceramic subsidiary manufactures piezoceramic material in-house.
PI holds ISO 9001 certification and reported approximately 1,900 employees worldwide at the time of the HOERBIGER agreement. Its equipment serves semiconductor manufacturing, photonics, life-science microscopy, industrial automation and scientific instrumentation such as astronomical telescope positioning.
Primary type & automation activities this supplier delivers:
PI Hexapod Parallel-Kinematic Systems
6-DOF parallel-kinematic robotic positioning platforms for precision alignment in semiconductor, photonics, medical, and industrial applications.
Piezo Nanopositioning Stages
Sub-nanometer resolution piezoelectric linear, rotary, and multi-axis positioning stages for photonics, life sciences, and semiconductor research.
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Contact Physik Instrumente (PI) GmbH
WEBSITE
https://www.physikinstrumente.comPHONE
+49 721 4846-0HEADQUARTERS
Germany
Company Facts
Founded
1970
Primary Role
Component Supplier
Company Size
-
Primary Region
Europe
Annual Sales
-
Funding Stage
-
Funding Total
-
