The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 19, 1999
Filed:
Apr. 16, 1997
Haruyuki Nakano, Sakai, JP;
Satoshi Shinke, Sakai, JP;
Ryuichi Yoshida, Sagamihara, JP;
Yasuhiro Okamoto, Tondabayashi, JP;
Minolta Co., Ltd., Osaka, JP;
Abstract
A drive device which repeats charging and discharging at different velocities by applying drive pulses to a piezoelectric transducer, causes vibrations with different velocities in the piezoelectric transducer to cause contraction and expansion displacements in a driving member fixedly coupled with the piezoelectric transducer for moving a member frictionally coupled to the driving member. In order to provide stable driving force, stable driving velocity and precise movement, a piezoelectric transducer constituted by stacking a plurality of unit elements is divided into a plurality of blocks having different numbers of lamination layers for driving. A change in impedance by the division is compensated by a compensation circuit, or a plurality of driving circuits corresponding to the impedance are provided and a block and a driving circuit of the piezoelectric transducer are selected in accordance with the driving velocity and moving distance for driving.