A piezoelectric driving device includes a piezoelectric vibrating body and a driving circuit. The piezoelectric vibrating body includes a contact which comes into contact with a driven member, and a piezoelectric element which generates vibration in accordance with a driving voltage. The driving circuit sets a driving frequency of the driving voltage to a first frequency and starts the driving at the time of initiation from a stopped state, and sets the driving frequency of the driving voltage to a second frequency lower than the first frequency in a driving state after the initiation.

A piezoelectric driving device includes a first substrate having cleavability, and a piezoelectric element placed above the first substrate, wherein a cleavage direction of the first substrate and a direction in which a shear force is applied do not coincide in a plan view of the first substrate. Further, an angle formed by the cleavage direction of the first substrate and the direction in which the shear force is applied is equal to or larger than 20° in the plan view of the first substrate. Furthermore, the first substrate contains silicon single crystal.

A piezoelectric drive device for vibrating a vibrating body to make a tip of a protruding part make a rotational motion of drawing an elliptic orbit to thereby drive a driven member, wherein the vibrating body includes a substrate, a driving piezoelectric element configured to vibrate the substrate, and a detecting piezoelectric element configured to detect a vibration of the substrate, the driving piezoelectric element includes a first driving piezoelectric element for making the vibrating body perform a stretching vibration in a first direction, and a second driving piezoelectric element for making the vibrating body perform a flexural vibration in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, the detecting piezoelectric element is arranged with the first driving piezoelectric element in the first direction, and there is provided a voltage control section for controlling a magnitude of a voltage to be applied to the first driving piezoelectric element.

A method of controlling a piezoelectric motor as a piezoelectric drive device having a vibrator including piezoelectric elements, a rotor as a driven unit that moves at a target speed by vibration of the vibrator, and drive signal generation units that generate drive signals and output the drive signals to the piezoelectric elements, includes intermittently outputting the drive signals to the piezoelectric elements by the drive signal generation units, wherein a time when output of the drive signals is stopped is shorter than a time from when output of the drive signal is stopped to stoppage of the vibration.

A vibration wave motor comprises a vibrator including a piezoelectric element and a vibrating body, a friction member including a first surface configured to come into contact with the vibrator, and a second surface, which is a surface on the opposite side of the first surface, the vibrator and the friction member moving relative to each other in a driving direction by a vibration generated by the vibrator, a supporting member configured to support the friction member on the second surface side; and a pressure member configured to bring the vibrator and the friction member into pressure contact with each other. A fixing portion configured to fix the friction member to the supporting member is provided in the friction member. The vibrator can move to a position where at least part of the vibrator and the fixing portion overlap each other in a pressure direction of the pressure member.

The invention relates to a piezoelectric motor with bending travelling wave, comprising a rotary shaft (4) connected to a rotor (3), a piezoelectric element (2) attached to a vibrating stator (1), and a decoupling web (5) for attaching the vibrating stator to a mounting (7). The mounting (7) is mechanically connected to a base (9) by means of at least one deformable element (10) and at least one piezoelectric actuator (11), so that the support can be deformed angularly relative to the base in order to rotate the shaft when the vibrating stator is no longer electrically powered. The motor is particularly suitable for applications that require micrometre or nanometre accuracies, for example in positioning tools in industrial processes, precise medical robotics or optical applications.

A piezoelectric drive device includes a vibrating part, and a control unit that controls vibration of the vibrating part, wherein the vibrating part includes a piezoelectric material having a first surface and a second surface in a front-back relation, a drive electrode having a first electrode arranged at the first surface and a second electrode arranged at the second surface, and vibrating the piezoelectric material when a drive signal from the control unit is input to the second electrode, and a detection electrode having a third electrode arranged at the first surface and a fourth electrode arranged at the second surface, and outputting a detection signal according to the vibration of the piezoelectric material to the control unit via the fourth electrode, and the first electrode and the third electrode are separated on the first surface, and the second electrode and the fourth electrode are separated on the second surface.

A vibration-type drive apparatus provided to solve the task includes a control unit that outputs a command signal, a drive unit that outputs a drive signal in accordance with the command signal, a vibrator unit in which two or more vibrators that vibrate in accordance with the drive signal are connected, a drive signal analyzing unit that analyzes the drive signal and outputs an analysis result, and a determining unit that determines whether there is a break in wiring lines respectively coupled to the vibrators in accordance with the analysis result.

A vibration actuator that is capable of reducing difference of vibration velocities when a contact member is driven using a plurality of vibrators includes a vibrator device and the contact member, which moves relative to the vibrator device. The vibrator device includes the plurality of vibrators, which are connected in series, and a plurality of inductors, which are connected in parallel to the respective vibrators.

A drive device includes a piezoelectric element, a drive shaft that receives vibration of the piezoelectric element and vibrates along an optical axis direction of a first imaging optical system, an engagement member that is frictionally engaged with the drive shaft and is connected to the first imaging optical system, and a lens controller that controls vibration of the piezoelectric element, in which the first imaging optical system is provided to be movable in a range including at least a first position and a second position, and the lens controller performs control of moving the first imaging optical system from the first position to the second position in a case in which a signal for instructing a power of the drive device to be turned off is received.