Characteristics of 10 mm multilayer L1-F2 mode vibrator and application to a linear motor

In the present paper we discuss a small-sized multilayer L-1-F-2 mode vibrator and its application to an ultrasonic linear motor. In an attempt to reduce both the size and the driving voltage of an L-1-F-2 mode vibrator, we constructed a multilayer L-1-F-2 mode vibrator whose inner electrodes are simply divided into two. Test results clarified that the multilayer L-1-F-2 mode vibrator exhibits two resonance modes; namely, a first longitudinal mode and a second flexural mode, and that an amplitude of vibration velocity is sufficiently large for application to a linear motor. Specific merits of our multilayer L-1-F-2 mode vibrator are that the driving voltage is low (5 V-rms), owing to multilayer construction, and that the vibrator is small (10 x 2.5 x 2 mm: W x H x D), owing to the simple construction of the inner electrodes. Additionally, the present study revealed that an ultrasonic linear motor using the multilayer L-1-F-2 mode vibrator exhibits superior performance in practical application.