Novel Linear Piezoelectric Motor for Precision Position Stage

Conventional servomotor and stepping motor face challenges in nanometer positioning stages due to the complex structure, motion transformation mechanism, and slow dynamic response, especially directly driven by linear motor. A new butterfly-shaped linear piezoelectric motor for linear motion is presented. A two-degree precision position stage driven by the proposed linear ultrasonic motor possesses a simple and compact configuration, which makes the system obtain shorter driving chain. Firstly, the working principle of the linear ultrasonic motor is analyzed. The oscillation orbits of two driving feet on the stator are produced successively by using the anti-symmetric and symmetric vibration modes of the piezoelectric composite structure, and the slider pressed on the driving feet can be propelled twice in only one vibration cycle. Then with the derivation of the dynamic equation of the piezoelectric actuator and transient response model, start-upstart-up and settling state characteristics of the proposed linear actuator is investigated theoretically and experimentally, and is applicable to evaluate step resolution of the precision platform driven by the actuator. Moreover the structure of the two-degree position stage system is described and a special precision displacement measurement system is built. Finally, the characteristics of the two-degree position stage are studied. In the closed-loop condition the positioning accuracy of plus or minus 〈0.5 μm is experimentally obtained for the stage propelled by the piezoelectric motor. A precision position stage based the proposed butterfly-shaped linear piezoelectric is theoretically and experimentally investigated.

Experiment on a Double-Foot Stepping Piezoelectric Linear Motor

A novel double-foot piezoelectric linear motor is proposed.The kinematic model of the motor under stepping motion is presented.The motor mainly consists of a stator with four piezoelectric stacks,a mover,a holding mechanism,and a preloading mechanism to achieve large stroke with high resolution.Finite element simulations are carried out to analyze the motion characteristics of the motor.A prototype is fabricated and a serial experiments are conducted to validate the feasibility of the motor principle.Experimental results indicate that the motor can move at a speed of 670.22μm/s with a driving frequency of 120 Hz and a voltage of 120 V.The resolution of the proposed motor is 3.6μm while the resolution of the single-step motion is 0.1μm.

Bionic Stepping Motors Driven by Piezoelectric Materials

By imitating the behavioral characteristics of some typical animals, researchers develop bionic stepping motors to extend the working range of piezoelectric materials and utilize their high accuracy advantage as well. A comprehensive review of the bionic stepping motors driven by piezoelectric materials is presented in this work. The main parts of stepping piezoelectric motors, including the feeding module, clamping module, and other critical components, are introduced elaborately. We classify the bionic stepping piezoelectric motors into inchworm motors, seal motors, and inertia motors depending on their main structure modules, and present the mutual transformation relationships among the three types. In terms of the relative position relationships among the main structure modules, each of the inchworm motors, seal motors, and inertia motors can further be divided into walker type, pusher type, and hybrid type. The configurations and working principles of all bionic stepping piezoelectric motors are reported, followed by a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of the performance for each type. This work provides theoretical support and thoughtful insights for the understanding, analysis, design, and application of the bionic stepping piezoelectric motors.

Design and Fabrication of Hybrid Piezomotor Applied in Precision Positioning Devices

The motor’s configuration is designed and the dynamic analysis equations based on its simplified model are deduced. A testing system utilizing grating is set up to test this new motor, and the theoretical movement principle for the motor is proved by experiments. The pulse waveforms are applied to drive the motor to move in steps. The motor has a displacement resolution of 10 nm and a maximum velocity of 0.6 mm/s. It can drive a 200 g slider whose range is 20 mm. A one-dimensional precision positioning platform is fabricated by using the new hybrid piezoelectric motor. The prototype is made up of two servomotors and two piezoelectric motors, which are controlled automatically by a computer. The positioning range of the platform is 10 cm.

Novel high torque bearingless two-sided rotary ultrasonic motor

Applications are limited at present because the currently available ultrasonic motors (USMs) do not provide suffi-ciently high torque and power. The conventional travelling-wave USM needs the bearing to support, which required lubricant. To solve the above problem, a bearingless travelling-wave USM is designed. First, a novel structure of the two-sided USM consisting of a two-sided teeth stator and two disk-type rotors is designed. And the excitation principle of the two-sided travelling-wave USM is analyzed. Then, using ANSYS software, we set up the model of the stator to predict the excitation frequency and modal response of the stator. The shape of the vibration mode was obtained. Last, the load characteristics of the USM are measured using ex-perimental method. The maximum stall torque and the no-load speed were obtained. The results showed that the characteristics of the two-sided USM are better than those of the conventional one-sided USM.

Development of the Atomic Force Microscopy Research Technique for the Nanostructures on the Vertical Edge of Thin Insulating Film

In this work, a development of a method of a thin insulating film vertical edge visualization of metal-insulator-metal （MIM） memory cells with atomic force microscopy （AFM） using a modified Omicron UHV AFM/STM microscope was performed. This included a development of a technique of the AFM visualization of segments of a vertical edge of thin insulator SiO2 film structures on a conductive substrate, a comparison of AFM topography and current profilograms for the edge profiles, and an Omicron microscope custom upgrade. The latter allowed us to perform the AFM probe positioning to any specific area of the sample in the scanning plane by two coordinates with an order of precision of 1 micrometer. The method is illustrated with the experimental results of AFM investigations of the special MIM structures with comb-type topology, and of the cells of functioning memory matrices with 20 nm thin silicon dioxide film open edge perimeter and TiN lower electrode, including topography/current profilograms. As a conclusion, our ongoing work on the AFM visualization of a complete perimeter of a SiO2 open edge of memory cells with a special new topology with a goal to visualize conductive phase nanoparticles during switching processes is briefly overviewed.

Computational analysis of vibration modes of disk-shaped piezoelectric traveling wave motors

According to Kirchhoff-Love's assumptions, this paper establishes linear system of equations for solving eigen frequency constant and corresponding mode shape. Using engineer-ing and numerical analysis software Matlab5.2 and method of coefficient determinant searching arithmetic, eigen frequency constant and mode shape of the stator with i.d./ o.d. ratio of 0.1, 0.3, 0.35, 0.6 and different vibration modes are accurately solved and analyzed. By means of Newton interpolation method, contributions of transverse deflection amplitude and vibration energy corresponding to various modes are determined. This paper offers a valid theoretical foundation for the optimum design of the stator of disk-shaped ultrasonic motors. Furthermore, according to results of numerical analysis, several choosing principles of vibration modes are summarized.