Olympus Corporation

Olympus Optical Company, Ltd.

Tomoki Funakubo

Katsuhiro Wakabayashi

Hiroyuki Imabayashi

Yukihiko Sawada

Takanao Fujimura

Masaji Nishikawa

Yasuo Sasaki

Hiroyuki Takizawa

Muneo Kasuga

Toshihiro Nakao

Akiko Mizunuma

Takuya Imahashi

Takashi Ouchi

Nagahide Sakai

Yoshihisa Taniguchi

Heiji Ogino

Toshiharu Tsubata

Sayuri Sato

Kiyoshi Tosaka

Sumio Kawai

Akira Matsui

Kazuhiro Yoshida

Hiroki Moriyama

Yasuhiro Ueda

Kenji Yoshino

Sakae Takehana

Masayoshi Esashi

Keiichi Arai

Mitsuru Namiki

Tatsuya Yamaguchi

Yasuharu Hakamatsuka

Atsuyoshi Shimamoto

Yasuaki Kasai

Minoru Matsuzaki

Hiroshi Tsuruta

Yasunobu Iga

Yuta Sato

Toru Kuboi

Kazutoshi Shiratori

Hiromichi Sakano

Yutaka Tatsuno

Masahiro Yoshino

Mamoru Aihara

Masami Hamada

Masaharu Hamada

Kazuhiro Watanabe

Koichi Umeyama

Sadao Shigetomi

Ichiro Takahashi

Yutaka Fujisawa

Kiyozou Koshiishi

Junji Okada

Morimichi Shimizu

Yougo Imai

Takashi Kawashima

Shinan Wang

Isamu Nakajima

Morimiti Simizu

The force of a piezoelectric element is efficiently transferred to an optical fiber without attenuation, so that the vibration of the optical fiber becomes large. Provided is an optical fiber scanner including an optical fiber which has an elongated cylindrical shape in which illumination light emitted from a light source is guided and can emerge from a distal end thereof and whose distal end can be vibrated in a direction intersecting the longitudinal direction thereof; and at least one piezoelectric element which have a plate shape polarized in a thickness direction thereof and which are separately bonded to an outer circumferential surface of the optical fiber closer to a base side than to a distal end thereof.

Optical fiber scanner

An endoscope has an insertion portion inserted through a living body, an illumination fiber arranged at a distal end of the insertion portion and irradiates the living body with illumination light, a detection fiber which detects return light from the living body, an actuator which swings a free end of the illumination fiber, and a ferrule which has a through-hole based on a diameter of the illumination fiber and is arranged between the illumination fiber and the actuator. The actuator has an actuator arranged at a first side face of the ferrule and an actuator arranged at a second side face of the ferrule that is different from a face point-symmetric to the first side face with respect to an axial direction of the illumination fiber.

Endoscope and endoscope apparatus having piezoelectric element which swings a free end of an optical element through a joining member

A piezoelectric actuator includes a prismatic piezoelectric element body having side surfaces, and external surface electrodes provided on at least three of the side surfaces of the piezoelectric element body.

Piezoelectric actuator having prismatic piezoelectric element

In an ultrasonic motor, an elliptical vibration is generated by combining a longitudinal primary resonance vibration resulting from an expansion and a contraction of a vibrator in a direction of a central axis and a torsional secondary resonance vibration or a torsional tertiary resonance vibration resulting from twisting around the central axis. A dimension ratio of a rectangle of the vibrator is chosen such that a resonance frequency of the longitudinal primary resonance vibration and a resonance frequency of the torsional secondary resonance vibration or the torsional tertiary resonance vibration match. The vibrator includes a plurality of regions in a surface orthogonal to the central axis, and deformations of the regions adjacent to each other along the direction of the central axis are mutually different. The vibrator expands and contracts in a direction orthogonal to a polarization direction thereof.

Ultrasonic motor

An ultrasonic motor, which drives a driven member using an elliptical vibration produced by synthesizing a longitudinal vibrational mode and a flexural vibrational mode as a drive force, is configured as follows. Namely, the ultrasonic motor includes a piezoelectric device, and a feed member feeding the piezoelectric device. An extensional axis of the feed member is set to an axis different from main vibrational axes of the longitudinal vibrational mode and the flexural vibrational mode.

When a piezoelectric ceramic sheet is divided into two equal parts in a longitudinal direction and two equal parts in a width direction to form four regions, internal electrodes are disposed over each region and are disposed so that surface areas occupied in each region are substantially the same, and a longitudinal vibration is detected based on a potential difference between the internal electrodes.

Ultrasonic motor and vibration detection method for ultrasonic motor

With the invention, both a longitudinal vibration mode and a flexural vibration mode are independently detected, or only the longitudinal vibration mode is detected, without using a special device. The invention provides an ultrasonic motor including electromechanical transducers for driving, electromechanical transducers for vibration detection, and an ultrasonic vibrator in which, by supplying two-phase alternating voltages with a predetermined phase difference and predetermined driving frequency to the electromechanical transducers for driving, two different vibration modes are simultaneously generated to produce a substantially elliptical vibration at an output. It is possible to independently detect both the longitudinal vibration mode and the flexural vibration mode with the electromechanical transducers for vibration detection.

An ultrasonic motor that is capable of stable driving by preventing uneven rotation of a driven body and maintaining the drive efficiency is provided. The ultrasonic motor includes a plurality of ultrasonic transducers including alternately stacked first piezoelectric elements and second piezoelectric elements, and a control unit for applying the same two-phase driving AC voltages to the plurality of ultrasonic transducers. The ultrasonic motor simultaneously generates longitudinal vibration and flexural vibration at the ultrasonic transducers to generate substantially elliptic vibration at output ends of the ultrasonic transducers and relatively moves the ultrasonic transducers and a driven body in contact with the ultrasonic transducers. The control unit includes a vibration detection circuit that detects the vibrations of the ultrasonic transducers and outputs an average-vibration detection signal, a phase comparator circuit that detects a phase difference between one of the two-phase driving AC voltages applied to the ultrasonic transducers and the average-vibration detection signal, and a frequency control circuit that controls the frequency of the driving AC voltages such that the phase difference detected by the phase comparing part is a predetermined value.

The invention provides an ultrasonic motor including internal electrodes provided in an ultrasonic vibrator and disposed in regions where electrical charges of the same sign are generated in one vibration mode and where electrical charges of opposite sign and substantially the same amount are generated in another vibration mode; and a control unit configured to detect a phase difference between a vibration detection signal detected on the basis of electrical signals from the internal electrodes and any one of driving AC voltages, and to set a driving frequency such that the phase difference becomes a reference phase difference. Each driving AC voltage with the driving frequency set by the control unit is applied to the ultrasonic vibrator.

In an ultrasonic vibrator in which ultrasonic elliptical vibration is caused at a friction-projection by the simultaneous generation of a first vibration mode and a second vibration mode in a piezoelectric element, the friction-projection is formed by burning so as to be integrated with the piezoelectric element.

Ultrasonic vibrator and ultrasonic motor using the ultrasonic vibrator

A vibrator of a vibration wave linear motor comprises two and one driving contacting parts respectively on top and bottom surfaces. A first guide member contacts the two driving contacting parts on the top surface, and both ends of a second guide member are pressed upward by spiral springs, and pressing forces are applied respectively between the driving contacting parts and the first and the second guide members. The three driving contacting parts convert elliptical vibrations, which are generated by applying a voltage to a vibrator unit, into driving force, whereby the vibrator self-runs in a direction indicated by a bidirectional arrow d with reference to the first and the second guide members. The self-running of the vibrator is conveyed, via a pin member and an engaging protruding part, to the lens frame, which then slides.

Vibration wave linear motor

An ultrasonic transducer in which internal electrodes and piezoelectric elements are alternately layered includes outer electrodes, each being connected to the corresponding internal electrodes. The ultrasonic transducer has a first layered part, a second layered part, a first outer-electrode group, and a second outer-electrode group. The first layered part includes at least the internal electrodes, each being divided in half in a second direction orthogonal to a layering direction, which is a first direction. The second layered part includes at least the internal electrodes, each being divided in half in a third direction orthogonal to the first direction and the second direction. The first outer-electrode group is provided so as to be connected to predetermined internal electrodes in the first layered part. The second outer-electrode group is provided so as to be connected to predetermined internal electrodes in the second layered part.

Ultrasonic transducer and ultrasonic motor

An ultrasonic linear motor according to the present invention has a configuration wherein driving elements are glued at portions on faces of an ultrasonic transducer, facing one another, where rotational directions of elliptic vibrations generated on the faces are reverse one to another, a pair of guides are provided for being pressed into against the driving elements so as to hold the ultrasonic transducer therebetween, and leaf springs serving as pressing part are provided so as to narrow a spacing between the one pair of guides, whereby the ultrasonic transducer is configured as an self-moving ultrasonic linear motor which can drive by itself. Thus, driving properties of the ultrasonic transducer itself is improved, and also the size of the ultrasonic linear motor can be reduced.

Ultrasonic linear motor

An ultrasonic-motor driving apparatus includes an ultrasonic motor, a driving unit, and a characteristic storage. The driving unit is detachable from the ultrasonic motor and has a driving circuit for driving the ultrasonic motor. The characteristic storage provided in the ultrasonic motor stores driving characteristic values of a resonant frequency and a drive voltage signal specific to the ultrasonic motor. The driving circuit drives and controls the ultrasonic motor based on the driving characteristic values stored in the characteristic storage.

Ultrasonic-motor driving apparatus

By bonding a conductive first matching layer to the acoustic radiation surface side, which is the bottom side, of a belt-shape piezoelectric element on both faces with electrodes provided, and using a dicing machine to form divided grooves , an array of piezoelectric elements is formed in the element array direction. By deepening the divided grooves , generation of cross talk can be prevented, and by filling the portions of the divided grooves not in contact with the piezoelectric elements with a conductive adhesive , a reduction in strength due to formation of the divided grooves can be prevented, and a common connection between the ground electrode on the bottom surface of each piezoelectric element and the conductive first matching layer can be reliably secured.

Ultrasonic transducer array

Growing community of inventors

Tama, Japan

Tomoki Funakubo