Konica Minolta Opto, Inc.

Konica Minolta Photo Imaging, Inc.

Shuichi Fujii

Ryuichi Yoshida

Kazumi Sugitani

Hirohisa Sueyoshi

Yoshiaki Hata

Tetsuya Uno

Hideaki Nakanishi

Takayuki Hoshino

Hideo Onishi

Tadatomi Sougawa

Norio Maeda

A driving deviceincludes an electromechanical transducer, a shaft-like vibrating membervibrated in its axial direction by the electromechanical transducer, a movable memberwhich engaging frictionally with the vibrating member, a substratewith a sensormounted thereon for detecting a position of the movable member, and a holding memberfixed to the substrateand having a holding sectionfor holding the vibrating memberand a positioning sectionfor positioning the sensor.

Driving device

Provided is a self-propelled drive apparatus that enables stable drive and low cost, the apparatus includes: a movable member which has an electromechanical transducer whose one end is fixed to the movable member and the other end is fixed to a drive friction member, which is movably supported by the movable member movably in the first direction, which represents a extension-contraction direction A-B of the electromechanical transducer, where the movable member is supported movably in the first direction; a pair of plate springs which extend in a belt shape in the first direction and sandwich the drive friction member; a base member holding the plate springs in a cantilever manner in the direction of the short sides of the plate springs; and auxiliary springs disposed on the outside of the plate springs to apply elastic force only to both ends of each of the plate springs.

Drive apparatus having auxiliary springs

A lens systemis provided with a plurality of lens units including a first lens unit, and has a condition changing structurethat is capable of changing the condition of the first lens unitwithout changing the position of the first lens unitin the direction of the optical axis x.

Lens system and image capturing apparatus

A drive unit in accordance with the present invention is provided with a magnetic field generating member generating a magnetic field, a magnetic field detecting device constituted by first, second and third magnetic field detecting elements detecting the magnetic field, and a piezoelectric actuator moving the magnetic field generating member. When executing a relative positioning between the magnetic field generating member and the magnetic field detecting device on the basis of a detection result by the magnetic field detecting device, a first positioning is executed on the basis of the detection result of the first and second magnetic field detecting elements in a predetermined region, and a second positioning is executed on the basis of the detection result of the third magnetic field detecting element at a predetermined point apart from the predetermined region, within a movable range in which the magnetic field generating member moves. In accordance with the structure, it is possible to position the movable body at a high precision, even in the case that a plurality of position detecting points of the movable body of the drive unit exist at a wide interval.

Drive unit provided with position detecting device

Growing community of inventors

Matsubara, Japan

Shuichi Fujii