The heterodyne He-Ne laser interferometer is the most widely used sensing unit to measure the position error. It measures the positioning error from the displacement of a moving reflector in terms of the wave length. But, the wave length is affected by the variation of atmospheric temperature. Temperature variation of 1℃ results in the measuring error of 1 ppm. In this paper, for measuring more accurately the position error of the ultra precision stage, the refractive index compensation method is introduced. The wave length of the laser interferometer is compensated using the simultaneously measured room temperature variations in the method. In order to investigate the limit of compensation, the stationary test against two fixed reflectors mounted on the zerodur® plate is performed firstly. From the experiment, it is confirmed that the measuring error of the laser interferometer can be improved from 0.34㎛ to 0.11㎛ by the application of the method. Secondly, for the verification of the compensating effect, it is applied to estimate the positioning accuracy of an ultra precision aero static stage. Two times of the refractive index compensation are performed to acquire the positioning error of the stage from the initially measured data, that is, to the initially measured positioning error and to the measured positioning error profile after the NC compensation. Although the positioning error of an aerostatic stage cannot be clarified perfectly, it is known that by the compensation method, the measuring error by the laser interferometer can be improved to within 0.1㎛.
