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US 8,351,104 B2Granted
Controllably coupled piezoelectric motors
OwnerSilvio Zaifrani, Gal Peled +3inventors
InventorsSilvio Zaifrani, Gal Peled, Gal Eshed, Shaul Hasson, Nir Karasikov
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Abstract
A mirror system comprising: a mirror; at least one piezoelectric motor having a coupling surface for coupling the motor to a moveable body; at least one spherical contact surface coupled to the mirror; and a motor mounting frame that holds a piezoelectric motor of the at least one piezoelectric motor and presses the piezoelectric motor coupling surface to a contact surface of the spherical contact surface; wherein the motor is controllable to apply force to the contact surface that rotates the mirror.
Claims24
A mirror system comprising:
- a mirror;
- a moveable body operably connected to the mirror;
- a friction nub for controlling the motion and positioning of moveable body;
- at least one piezoelectric motor operably couple-able to the friction nub and to the moveable body;
- a motor mounting frame that holds a piezoelectric motor of the at least one piezoelectric motor;
- and
- a coupling apparatus operably connected to the motor mounting frame, the coupling apparatus controllable and configured to provide different coupling forces to the moveable body and the coupling apparatus comprises a shape memory alloy connected to a power supply,
- whereby the mirror is operably engaged or disengaged by controlling the temperature of the shape memory alloy with respect to a transition temperature of the alloy so that the mirror position can be adjusted by one of the at least one piezoelectric motors when the mirror is operably engaged and allowing movement of the mirror without substantial resistance when the mirror is disengaged.
5 more elements
Apparatus comprising:
- a moveable body having first and second positions;
- a piezoelectric motor controllable to move the body from the first to the second position;
- an element that stores potential energy whose potential energy increases when the piezoelectric motor moves the body from the first to the second positions;
- and
- coupling apparatus controllable to decouple the motor from the body;
- wherein the potential energy decreases and causes the body to return to the first position when the coupling apparatus decouples the motor from the body.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.