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 piezo driver system including a driver including a switching amplifier coupling a power port to a driver port, a battery coupled to the power port, a piezo device coupled to the driver port, where the switching amplifier provides a filtered driver signal to the driver port and returns stored charge from the piezo device to the battery. A method for driving a piezo device includes multiplying an input signal by an oscillator signal to provide a control signal, controlling a switching amplifier in accordance with the control signal to provided a filtered alternating current (AC) driver signal and a returned charge direct current (DC) signal, applying the filtered driver signal to a piezo device, and returning stored charge of the piezo device to a battery.

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 motion control system and method for controlling a stick-slip piezo motor includes an electronic controller and an analog driver for moving a mechanical device. When operating in a digital circuit mode, an electronic controller controls a digital-to-analog converter for moving the stick-slip piezo motor at a low speed. When operating in a faster analog circuit mode, the electronic controller, via an analog driver, operates to control an analog hardware circuit to move the stick-slip piezo motor at a high speed. The electronic controller operates in the digital circuit mode at start-up of the piezo motor.

An electric linear repetitive pulsed drive for an operation of apparatuses, in particular for an operation of apparatuses for improving an efficiency of which a working energy that is output in a pulsed manner, with at the same time low repetition frequencies, is advantageous, includes a magnetic circuit with an air gap and an electric coil, a magnetic shape-memory adjustment element and a reset unit, and a control electronics unit, wherein the electric linear repetitive pulsed drive outputs its energy in discrete-time fashion, bundled in short time intervals, that is in pulses.

A linear actuator has a base, a linear guide coupled to a flat, planar side of the base and extending in a travel length of an object to be moved, a contact plate extending along the flat, planar side of the base, and a carriage. The carriage includes an enclosure formed of an acoustically isolating material, a moving element configured to move along the guide and is coupled to the enclosure, a piezoelectric element including a contact site in physical contact with the contact plate, and a housing elastically holding the piezoelectric element, the housing coupled to the enclosure with no direct contact with the moving element. An electrical power source is in electrical communication with the piezoelectric element, wherein the power source energizes the piezoelectric element to effectuate movement of the carriage along the linear guide via the physical contact between the contact site and the contact plate.

Provided are a piezoelectric driving device, an optical member driving device, a camera device, and an electronic apparatus, which are capable of performing driving only by one-direction oscillation modes, and capable of combining the oscillation modes to enable driving in two directions. A piezoelectric driving device (10) includes: a driving portion (12) to be brought into frictional contact with an object to be driven; and two piezoelectric portions (14a, 14b) (14c, 14d), which are provided to the driving portion (12), are arranged on a plane with the driving portion (12) being sandwiched between the two piezoelectric portions, and are configured to be bent with respect to the plane when voltages are applied thereto. Further, a piezoelectric driving device (10) includes: a driving portion (12) to be brought into frictional contact with an object to be driven; and at least four piezoelectric portions (14a to 14d), which are fixed to the driving portion (12), are arranged in a circulated manner on a plane and around the driving portion (12), and are configured to be bent with respect to the plane when voltages are applied thereto.

A control device and a control method for a piezoelectric inertia motor are provided. In the stick phase, a first switching element and a second switching element are switched in directions opposite to one another by pulse width modulation, where a time component of a first switching state of ON and OFF increases relative to a time component of a second switching state of ON and OFF, the pulse width modulation is filtered by the capacitive piezoelectric actuator and an inductance, and a first charging operation is carried out, and the time components of the first switching state and the second switching state are reversed at the beginning of a slip phase, and thereby carrying out a second charging operation in the opposite direction to the first charging operation at the capacitive piezoelectric actuator. By storing electromagnetic energy in the inductance, the configuration provided allows for the reduction of energy dissipation as heat and can contribute to an energy-efficient drive for inertia motors.

A method for transmitting data from an actuator to a control unit controlling the actuator. The control unit controls a piezoelectric element contained in the actuator. In order to transmit the data, in the actuator, a load being or not being connected in parallel with the piezoelectric element.

The invention describes a piezo driving circuit, comprising an input at which a temporally variable voltage signal is applied; a piezo interface for connecting terminals of a piezo actuator arrangement with at least one voltage controlled piezo actuator; a sync control circuit realized to detect the phase position of the voltage signal; and an inverter circuit between the input and the piezo interface; whereby the sync control circuit is realized to control the inverter circuit, based on the phase position of the voltage signal, such that a control voltage with a predefined voltage curve is applied at the piezo interface. The invention further describes a method of controlling a piezo actuator arrangement. The invention also describes a piezo actuator configuration comprising a piezo actuator arrangement and an inventive piezo driving circuit. The invention also describes a metering valve comprising the inventive piezo actuator configuration.