A standing wave-type noncontact linear ultrasonic motor

In this study, a novel standing wave-type noncontact linear ultrasonic motor is proposed and analyzed. This linear ultrasonic motor uses a properly controlled ultrasonic standing wave to levitate and drive a slider. A prototype of the motor was constructed by using a wedge-shaped aluminum stator, which was placed horizontally and driven by a multilayer PZT vibrator. The levitation and motion of the slider were observed. Assuming that the driving force was generated by the turbulent acoustic streaming in the boundary air layer next to the bottom surface of the slider, a theoretical model was developed. The calculated characteristics of this motor were found to agree quite well with the experimental results. Based on the experimental and theoretical results, guidelines for increasing the displacement and speed of the slider were obtained. It was found that increasing the stator vibration displacement, or decreasing the gradient of the stator vibration velocity and the weight per unit area of the slider, led to an increase of the slider displacement. It was also found that increasing the amplitude and gradient of the stator vibration velocity, or decreasing the weight per unit area of the slider and the driving frequency, gave rise to an increase of the slider speed. There exists an optimum roughness of the bottom surface of the slider at which the slider speed has a maximum.