A high‐speed mechanical scanning stage for microscopic applications has been designed and constructed. It is especially suitable for high‐resolution confocal UV microscopy. It is a feedback design using electromagnetic actuators and piezoelectric sensors with motor‐driven screws for coarse adjustment. Scanning of areas up to 1 mm square at up to 300 lines per second is possible with positional resolution of better than 0.01 &mgr;m. An exceptionally stable optical system is also described.