A new XY micro-motion stage is proposed with the double four-bar prismatic joints to transfer linear motions and mechanical displacement amplifier. The compliance models of the amplifier, the prismatic joints, and the whole stage are established based on the flexibility matrix method. The simulation is made by using finite element analysis ANSYS software. The output cross-talk is about 2% and the parasitic motions of the input points in the other limbs are less than 1.8%, which shows a good decoupling property. The mechanical prototype is fabricated, the experimental results show that the input/output of the stage has a very good linearity, the ratio of output displacement to input displacement is 5.06 and the working range is 156 μm × 156 μm. To tackle for the serious hysteresis nonlinear problems of the stage, model reference adaptive PID controller is designed, the final resolution can reach ±0.2 μm. © 2014 Korean Society for Precision Engineering and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.