Inventors:
Mark J. Holum - Anchorage AK
International Classification:
H01L 4108
Abstract:
a piezoelectric motor providing either continuous or incremental angular rotary motion of one or two shafts. In a first embodiment, the piezoelectric motor includes two disks (16, 18) mounted onto rotatable shafts (12, 14). A plurality of piezoelectric elements (32) are disposed in a plurality of radially aligned slots (33) around the circumferential edge of one of the disks. A rotary switch assembly (20) is operative to energize a selected piezoelectric element (38) causing it to radially expand, thereby forcing each of the disks to rotate in opposite directions. In a second embodiment, both of the disks include the piezoelectric elements around their circumferential edge. In a third embodiment, piezoelectric plates (68) are stacked circumferentially in slots (66) around the circumferential edge (70) of one of the disks and are selectively actuated so that the center of the selected piezoelectric element is caused to bow radially outward, causing the two disks to rotate in opposite directions. In a fourth embodiment, actuation of the selected piezoelectric element causes a crankarm (86) to turn as a thrust disk (88) rotates about the circumferential edge of a fixed driver disk (82).