In the atomic force microscope (AFM) scanning system, the piezoscanner is significant in realizing highperformance tasks. To cater to this demand, a novel compliant two-degrees-of-freedom (2-DOF) micro-/nanopositioning stage with modified lever displacement amplifiers is proposed in this paper, which can be selected to work in dual modes. Moreover, the modified double four-bar P (P denotes prismatic) joints are adopted in designing the flexible limbs. The established models for the mechanical performance evaluation in terms of kinetostatics, dynamics, and workspace are validated by finite-element analysis. After a series of dimension optimizations carried out via particle swarm optimization algorithm, a novel active disturbance rejection controller, including the components of nonlinearity tracking differentiator, extended state observer, and nonlinear state error feedback, is designed for automatically estimating and suppressing the plant uncertainties arising from the hysteresis nonlinearity, creep effect, sensor noises, and other unknown disturbances. The closed-loop control results based on simulation and prototype indicate that the two working natural frequencies of the proposed stage are approximated to be 805.19 and 811.31 Hz, the amplification ratio in two axes is about 4.2, and the workspace is around 120 × 120 μm2, while the cross-coupling between the two axes is kept within 2%. All of the results indicate that the developed micro-/nanopositioning system has a good property for high-performance AFM scanning. © 1982-2012 IEEE.