Electro-mechanical energy converter and vibration wave driving
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsKiyoshi Nitto, Yutaka Maruyama, Takayuki Tsukimoto
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Abstract
At least one exemplary embodiment is directed to an electromechanical energy converter and a vibration wave driving apparatus that can facilitate miniaturization, high power, low cost and low voltage drive, by using a polygonal piezoelectric element with a plurality of electrode films divided by a boundary of electrode film on the polygonal piezoelectric element.
Claims12
An electro-mechanical energy converter that generates vibration by applying an AC voltage to a plurality of electrode films formed on a surface, the electro-mechanical energy converter comprising:
- a plurality of electrode films formed on the surface of the electro-mechanical energy converter, each electrode film separated from its neighbor by a non-conductive part boundary, wherein the plurality of electrode films and non-conductive part boundary together define a polygonal area.
An electro-mechanical energy converter provided with a plurality of layers alternately laminated with a layer having a plurality of electrode films and a material having an electro-mechanical energy converting function, that generates vibration by applying an AC voltage to the plurality of electrode films, the electro-mechanical energy converter comprising:
- a plurality of electrode films on the same plane, each electrode film separated from it's neighbor by a boundary of non-conductive part, wherein the plurality of electrode films and non-conductive part boundary together define a polygonal area in the plane.
A vibration wave driving apparatus comprising:
- a vibrator including;
- an electro-mechanical energy converter provided with a plurality of layers alternately laminated with a layer having a plurality of electrode films and a material having an electro-mechanical energy converting function that generates vibration by applying an AC voltage to the plurality of electrode films;
- an elastic body which comes into contact with the electro-mechanical energy converter;
- and
- a shaft which passes through the inside of the electro-mechanical energy converter and the elastic body to operatively connect them,
- wherein the vibrator generates a plurality of bending vibrations in a direction substantially orthogonal to the shaft by the vibration generated by the electro-mechanical energy converter, and the plurality of bending vibrations are combined to induce circular motion on the surface of the elastic body;
- and
- a contact body which comes into contact with the vibrator and is driven by the circular motion induced on the surface of the elastic body,
- wherein the electro-mechanical energy converter includes a plurality of electrode films on the same plane, each electrode film separated from its neighbor by a boundary of non-conductive part, a cross section of the plane is a polygonal area and the electrode film boundary is provided in an area that does not include the vertex of the polygonal area.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.