Vibrator of vibratory drive unit, vibratory drive unit, interchangeable lens, imaging device, and automatic stage

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10488616-B2
Application number	US-201615293190-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 13, 2016
Priority date	Oct 16, 2013
Publication date	Nov 26, 2019
Grant date	Nov 26, 2019

Abstract

A vibrator including an electro-mechanical transducer and an elastic body that is fixed to the electro-mechanical transducer and that is provided with a projection, the projection having a hollow structure. The projection includes a contact portion having a first surface at a tip, the first surface being parallel to a first plane, a wall portion projecting towards an opposite side with respect to the electro-mechanical transducer, and a connection portion connecting the wall portion and the contact portion to each other. The connection portion having a spring property, and the contact portion includes a portion of which a cross-sectional area in a second plane that is parallel to the first plane increases as an increase of a distance between the portion and the first surface.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A vibrator, comprising:
an electro-mechanical transducer; and
an elastic body,
wherein the elastic body is provided with a projection protruding at a side opposite to a side at which the electro-mechanical transducer is provided, and a contact portion that protrudes along a direction in which the projection protrudes is provided to the projection, and
wherein a width of a base of the contact portion is wider than a width of a contact surface of the contact portion.

2. A vibratory drive unit, comprising:
the vibrator according to claim 1 ; and
a driven body,
wherein the movable member is configured to contact the contact portion.

3. An electronic device comprising the vibratory drive unit according to claim 2 .

4. The vibrator according to claim 1 , wherein the contact portion has a portion in which cross-sectional areas of the contact portion become larger the farther away from the contact surface of the contact portion.

5. The vibrator according to claim 1 , wherein the projection includes:
the contact portion;
a wall portion protruding toward the opposite side; and
a connection portion connecting the wall portion and the contact portion.

6. The vibrator according to claim 5 , wherein there is a space surround by the contact portion, the wall portion, the connection portion and the electro-mechanical transducer.

7. The vibrator according to claim 5 , wherein the wall portion has a cylindrical shape.

8. The vibrator according to claim 1 , wherein a change in spring stiffness of the projection is not greater than 10% when a thickness of the contact portion is decreased to a range of 40 μm or less.

9. The vibrator according to claim 1 , wherein, when a thickness of the contact portion is decreased, spring stiffness of the projection decreases after increasing.

10. The vibrator according to claim 5 , wherein a maximum thickness of the contact portion is greater than a thickness of the connection portion.

11. The vibrator according to claim 1 , wherein, in the electro-mechanical transducer, an ellipsoidal motion is excited in the projection by means of two bending vibration modes due to application of an alternating current voltage to the electro-mechanical transducer.

12. The vibrator according to claim 11 , wherein the two vibration modes include a first bending mode and a second bending mode in which nodal lines thereof are substantially orthogonal to each other.

13. The vibrator according to claim 1 , wherein the width of a base of the contact portion is two times or more with respect to the width of a contact surface of the contact portion.

Assignees

• Canon Kk

Inventors

• Araki Yasuyuki

Classifications

• G02B21/26

  Stages; Adjusting means therefor · CPC title

• H02N2/0065

  Friction interface (friction linings F16D69/00) · CPC title

• H02N2/026

  by pressing one or more vibrators against the driven body · CPC title

• G02B7/023

  permitting adjustment · CPC title

• G03B13/36

  Autofocus systems · CPC title