An electrical connection structure for connecting a piezoelectric element and an electrical circuit to each other with a conductive adhesive is described. The electrical connection structure includes an epoxy, a conductive component surrounded by the epoxy, and a trace feature implemented on top of the electrical connection structure.

A single die driver integrated circuit is coupled to an input portion having a single inductor receiving a low voltage source and configured to drive a capacitive load with an output voltage. The driver includes a bidirectional synchronous power converter stage configured to generate a switching voltage from the input portion at a switching node and to generate a high voltage waveform from the low-voltage source. An embedded controller is configured to control a switch of the power converter stage.

A piezoelectric actuator control device comprising a first voltage converter supplying a DC voltage on a DC power supply bus to which is connected a second voltage converter capable of generating a variable excitation voltage under the control of a control computer, the second voltage converter comprising two switch half-bridges mounted in parallel with the terminals of a bus capacitor, the control computer being suitable for controlling the two switch half-bridges according to a first control configuration, in which they are controlled independently in order to each supply a voltage in a range between zero and a maximum positive value and according to a second control configuration, in which they are jointly controlled as a full-bridge for supplying a voltage between a minimum negative value and said maximum positive value.

A single ended n-bit hybrid digital-to-analog converter is configured to receive as an input an analog signal and produce an n-bit digital output. The converter includes a split main sub-digital-to-analog converter capacitor array, a most significant bit capacitor array, and a main capacitor array. A coupling capacitor couples the main array to the split main sub-digital-to-analog convert.

A variable voltage generator circuit is described for generating, from a substantially constant supply voltage V.sub.S, a variable high-voltage control voltage V.sub.C for a variable power capacitor (1) having a variable-permittivity dielectric. The control voltage generator circuit comprises a top-up circuit (10) for maintaining the voltage V.sub.Cin on an input capacitor (12) at least at supply voltage V.sub.S, and a bidirectional DC-DC converter circuit (20) having a variable voltage conversion factor G controlled by control input signal (27). The bidirectional DC-DC converter (20) is arranged to convert voltage, at the voltage conversion factor G, between the input capacitor voltage V.sub.Cin and the output voltage V.sub.C. When V.sub.C<GV.sub.Cin, the DC-DC converter circuit (20) uses charge stored in the input capacitor (12) to charge the capacitive load (1). When V.sub.C>GV.sub.Cin, the DC-DC converter circuit (20) uses charge stored in the load capacitance (1) to charge the input capacitor (12).

A single die driver integrated circuit is coupled to an input portion having a single inductor receiving a low voltage source and configured to drive a capacitive load with an output voltage. The driver includes a bidirectional synchronous power converter stage configured to generate a switching voltage from the input portion at a switching node and to generate a high voltage waveform from the low-voltage source. An embedded controller is configured to control a switch of the power converter stage.

A piezoelectric motorization system for driving mechanical loads multi-dimensionally by an electronic circuitry is disclosed. The piezoelectric motorization system has a piezoelectric apparatus that is constructed by a mechanically flexible body that has multiple piezoelectric actuators attached its surfaces, where these actuators are controlled by an electronic circuitry. The mechanically flexible body has a finite structure with a sets of boundary conditions to determine its out-of-plane resonant modes. The electronic circuitry inject at least two sets of control signals into different groups of actuators at or near different resonant frequencies. Using these control signals, traveling waves can be generated on the piezoelectric apparatus to move mechanical loads placed on its surface. Or, the traveling waves are used to propel the piezoelectric apparatus for motorization. The moving direction and velocity are controlled and adjusted by amplitude ratio and phase difference among driving frequencies of control signals. The moving direction and velocity also is controlled by the size, shape and locations of piezoelectric actuators on the mechanically flexible body. Different combinations of bending and/or twisting modes are used to generate one-dimensional or two-dimensional movements. Finally, multiple piezoelectric apparatus can be placed on three orthogonal planes of a three-dimensional mass for three-dimensional motorization.

It is an object of the present invention to reduce power consumption in a drive circuit that drives a capacitive load. A drive circuit includes: a positive-side circuit; and a negative-side circuit. The positive-side circuit causes current supplied from a power source to a predetermined node to flow to a positive-side terminal of a capacitive load in a first drive mode and causes current from the capacitive load to flow from the positive-side terminal to the predetermined node in a second drive mode. The negative-side circuit causes current from a negative-side terminal of the capacitive load to flow to the predetermined node in the first drive mode and causes current supplied from the power supply to the predetermined node to flow to the negative-side terminal in the second drive mode.

The present invention provides a vibrator made of a non-lead-based piezoelectric material and capable of being driven at a sufficient speed with low power consumption, and provides a vibration wave drive device and an electronical device each using the vibrator. To that end, the vibrator according to the present invention includes a piezoelectric element including a piezoelectric material and electrodes, and an elastic body, wherein a Pb component contained in the piezoelectric material is less than 1000 ppm, and a resonance frequency f.sub.A in a vibration mode A and a resonance frequency f.sub.B in a vibration mode B satisfy a relation of an absolute value of (f.sub.Bf.sub.A)>2 (kHz), the vibration mode A and the vibration mode B generating vibration waves in the elastic body with wave fronts of the vibration waves intersecting each other.

An actuator including a beam configured to support an object to be driven, and a drive source to which a drive signal is input, wherein the drive signal includes a drive waveform in a shape of sawtooth waveform, a rising of the drive waveform in the shape of sawtooth waveform includes a first staircase waveform and a second staircase waveform continuing from the first staircase waveform, the first staircase waveform generates oscillation of a ringing suppressing waveform for suppressing a ringing waveform to be generated in the second staircase waveform, and the object to be driven is driven to swing in a direction of rotating around the predetermined axis by driving the drive source.