The invention provides a substrate support arranged to support a substrate, comprising piezo a actuator, further comprising a first pair of electrodes, a second pair of electrodes and a piezo material having a first surface and a second surface. The first surface is arranged along a first direction and second direction. The first pair of electrodes comprises a first electrode arranged on the first surface and a second electrode arranged on the second surface. The second pair of electrodes is arranged to shear the piezo material. The first pair of electrodes is arranged to elongate the piezo material in a third direction perpendicular to the first direction and second direction. The first electrode is divided into at least two parts and is arranged to rotate the first surface and the second surface relatively to each other about the first direction wherein the piezo actuator is arranged to support the substrate.

A piezoelectric stepper drive includes a piezoelectric drive apparatus with at least two drive sections, each acted upon by at least two piezoelectric actuators, and a driven member which is advanced by at least one of the drive sections when control voltages are applied to the actuators. The drive apparatus is configured approximately in the shape of a triangle, at the tip of which the drive sections are arranged. At least one of the drive sections is biased against the driven member, in the absence of control voltages applied to the actuators, such that the drive section blocks advance of the driven member, where each of the drive sections is mounted individually resilient relative to a base of the triangle.

A fiber scanning system includes a fiber optic element having an actuation region and a motion actuator mechanically coupled to the fiber optic element. A continuous bond line is present between the actuation region and the motion actuator. The fiber scanning system also includes a retention collar mechanically coupled to the motion actuator.

Methods, systems, and computer readable media for control of slip-stick stages using P and PI sawtooth modulated inputs.

A method for operating an electromechanical element, comprising the following steps: by controlling a first control section which is deformable by an electrical voltage by a first voltage signal generation of adjusting movements of a friction element which is arranged on the electromechanical element and which is provided for frictional contact with an element to be driven, controlling of a second control section which is deformable by an electrical voltage by a second voltage signal, which comprises a signal section, the frequency of which compared to the first voltage signal is by a factor, an actuator, a drive device with an actuator and a motor with a drive device and an element to be driven.

A driving control apparatus controls an actuator that relatively moves a vibrator and a contact body contacting the vibrator, the vibrator being made to generate vibration by applying a first signal and a second signal having a phase difference. The driving control apparatus includes at least one processor or circuit configured to execute a plurality of tasks including a first determining task configured to determine the phase difference, and a second determining task configured to determine a voltage amplitude of power supplied to the actuator so that the voltage amplitude decreases as an absolute value of the phase difference decreases.

A control unit of a piezoelectric drive device calculates a maximum deceleration α applied to a driven part by the piezoelectric drive device using a friction force F2max between the piezoelectric drive device and the driven part and a mass m of the driven part, calculates a distance Ln to a target position from a present position of the driven part detected by a position sensor, calculates a reference velocity vth of the driven part using the maximum deceleration α and the distance Ln from the present position of the driven part to the target position, calculates a velocity vn of the driven part from a temporal change of the present position of the driven part detected by the position sensor, and performs control to apply a drive force from the piezoelectric drive device to the driven part when the present velocity vn of the driven part is lower than the reference velocity vth, and apply a brake force from the piezoelectric drive device to the driven part when the present velocity vn is equal to or higher than the reference velocity vth.

A driving control apparatus that controls driving of a vibration actuator having a plurality of electromechanical energy conversion elements. The driving control apparatus includes a controller configured to generate a plurality of driving signals each of which has a same waveform and has a different phase, and to respectively apply the plurality of driving signals to different elements of the plurality of electromechanical energy conversion elements. The controller changes the waveform according to the phase. A shape of a first waveform according to a first phase is closer to a square wave shape than a shape of a second waveform according to a second phase that is larger than the first phase.

A method of fabricating an apparatus for piercing an object, the apparatus comprises: a substrate; one or more needles; one or more anchors and one or more piezoelectric actuators. The method comprises the steps of deposit sacrificial layer over the substrate; deposit conducting layer over the sacrificial layer; deposit piezoelectric layer over the conducting layer; etch a geometry of the one or more piezoelectric actuators using a first mask created by lithography process; deposit the one or more needle and one or more anchors using a second mask created by lithography process and a lift-off process; etch the sacrificial layer under the needle and the one or more piezoelectric actuators, wherein the anchors are configured to connect the substrate to the piezoelectric actuators and the one or more piezoelectric actuators are configured to move the one or more needles.

A control device for a vibration actuator includes a detection signal acquisition section adapted to obtain an alternating-current detection signal corresponding to a vibration of the resonator body from the resonator bodies, a phase difference detection section adapted to detect a phase difference between the drive signal and the detection signal with respect to the resonator bodies, a resonator body selection section adapted to select one from the resonator bodies, and a drive signal control section adapted to adjust a frequency of the drive signal so that the phase difference in the resonator body selected comes closer to a target value.