Characteristics of 10 mm Multilayer L1-F2Mode 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 ×2.5 ×2 mm: W×H×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.