Contents

• 1 Current designs
o 1.1 Locking mechanisms
o 1.2 Stepping actions
o 1.3 Direct drive actions
o 1.4 Speed and precision
• 2 Other designs
o 2.1 Single action

A piezoelectric motor or piezo motor is a type of electric

motor based upon the change in shape of a piezoelectric
material when an electric field is applied. Piezoelectric
motors make use of the converse piezoelectric effect whereby
the material produces acoustic or ultrasonic vibrations in
order to produce a linear or rotary motion. In one mechanism,
the elongation in a single plane is used to make a series
stretches and position holds, similar to the way a caterpillar
moves.

Current designs

Motors are made in both linear and rotary types.

Of these, one drive technique is to use piezoelectric ceramics

to push a stator.These piezoelectric motors use three groups
of crystals: two of which are Locking and one Motive,
permanently connected to either the motor's casing or stator
(not both) and sandwiched between the other two, which
provides the motion. These piezoelectric motors are
fundamentally stepping motors, with each step comprising
either two or three actions, based on the locking type.
Another mechanism employs the use of surface acoustic
waves (SAW) to generate linear or rotational motion.

A second drive technique is illustrated by the trademark

Squiggle motor, in which piezoelectric elements are bonded
orthogonally to a nut and their ultrasonic vibrations rotate and
translate a central lead screw. This is a direct drive
mechanism.
Piezo LEGS® Motor
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Imagine an electric motor of approximately the same size as an ant, but 1,000 times as
strong. Then imagine that it moves like an ant, despite being constructed in one solid
piece. Still, it can actually walk, step by step, one pair of legs at a time.

What is really unique with the Piezo LEGS® motor is its ability to synchronize the
movement of each pair of legs – just like an ant. What is obvious in nature is not
necessarily as obvious to an electric motor.

PiezoWave™ Motor
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The PiezoWave™ was originally developed for applications within handheld consumer
electronic devices such as mobile phones, but the product is now being integrated into
many other applications, including other handheld devices, consumer electronics,
medical technology applications, electromechanical door locks, advanced toys, cameras
etc.
The PiezoWave™ motor consists of very small piezo ceramic elements that are surface
assembled on a flexible printed circuit board. The design enables manufacture of the
motors in mass volume manufacturing equipment at very low cost.
The motor consists of just a few parts. When activated electrically, the piezo ceramic
elements will vibrate with an ultrasonic frequency. The drive pads, which are used for
transferring the movement from the elements to the drive rail, will move in an elliptical
fashion due to flexural (bending) waves in the piezo element.
Designers looking to save power and size are turning to advanced technologies, and
motors are no exception. With piezoelectric technology at the heart, a new type of motor
is improving small-scale motion systems in a big way.
Electronic access control enhances Security, convenience, Safety, and flexibility in a wide
range of applications from building automation to automobiles. Today, system designers are
adding "smallest size" to the requirements list for the electronic actuators at the core of
access control systems. Some of the applications with high demand for miniaturization
include:
1:-Door locks: Hardware designers want electronic lock modules to fit within the
footprint of existing mechanical lock cylinders. This enables easier retrofit and faster,
more cost-effective mechanical system upgrades, thereby speeding technology adoption.
1:-Medication carts: Smaller locks enable smart access storage in portable carts that
caregivers use during patient care rounds. Electronic access control on these mobile carts
helps reduce medication errors, eliminates extra trips to secure cabinets for controlled
substances such as narcotics, and provides electronic records of all transactions.

2:-Airplane compartments: Smaller, lightweight active latches support the

industryís never-ending drive to reduce aircraft weight and improve fuel economy.
Todayís fuel costs have increased the urgency for lighter systems.

3:-Automotive: A typical passenger vehicle now has more than 100 motors and
sensors in devices such as rearview cameras and safety interlocks. Designers are
challenged to fit in even more automated devices for driver convenience and safety, while
staying within a total power budget for the vehicleís electrical system.
4:-Industrial computing: Electronic interlocks can avert hardware damage, for example,
preventing a hard drive from being removed while it is operating. Smaller actuators fit in
tight spaces, from server racks to laptops.

In addition to the demand for smaller-sized actuators, many of these applications require low
power consumption, high speed, and fairly high force. While classic actuator solutions, such
as DC motors, stepper motors, shape memory alloys, and solenoids have failed to meet all
of these requirements, new piezoelectric motors are stepping up to the challenge.
Limits of traditional motors and solenoids

Traditional DC motors and stepper motors comprise dozens of parts, including iron cores,
permanent magnets, copper windings, gears, and bearings. Micro motors are engineering
marvels – complex assemblies of incredibly tiny components, even Microelectromechanical
Systems (MEMS) components. However, these increasingly tiny parts are becoming
increasingly fragile, which limits the force they can produce. Their presence in the load path
also raises concerns about robustness, resilience to impact loads, and lifetime.

Another concern is efficiency, which drops sharply when motor diameter falls below about 10
mm (Figure 1). With smaller parts, an increasing percentage of power is converted to heat
instead of motion. Smaller motor diameter requires higher operating speed to produce
significant power, thereby requiring greater gear ratio reduction to produce usable torque,
which also reduces efficiency. Finally, supplemental mechanical assemblies such as lead
screws are needed to translate rotary motion into linear motion for most electronic access
control applications, further increasing part count and integration complexity.

Solenoid assemblies are inexpensive and useful in many applications. However, because
solenoids operate using strong magnets to hold the plunger in place, bringing a strong
magnetic field into close proximity with the lock can potentially cause them to open. This
limits their effectiveness in some applications, such as electronic access applications where
high security is essential.

For these reasons, piezoelectric motors are emerging as an alternative to DC motors and
solenoids where miniaturization, low power use, and high reliability are required. Unique
design techniques have resulted in robust motors that are half the size of the smallest
electromagnetic motors and yet offer greater push force and an overall reduction in power
consumption.

Piezo motor background

Piezoelectric motors leverage the unique property of piezoelectric ceramic materials; they
change shape in response to an applied voltage. This movement is typically on a micrometer
scale for piezo elements with millimeter dimensions. Various motor designs multiply these
micrometer-scale movements to deliver many millimeters of continuous motion.

One type of design uses piezoelectric elements placed in friction contact with a slider, using
the force of the bending piezo ceramics to move the slider and push a load. The
piezoelectric ceramics provide off-power hold but remain in the load path.

A more compact design uses piezoelectric elements to vibrate a nut in a tiny orbital wobbling
motion similar to a hula hoop at an ultrasonic frequency matching the first bending resonant
frequency of the nut (approximately 100 KHz). A mating threaded screw, driven by tangential
forces from the threads of the nut, rotates and translates with a smooth linear motion to push
a load, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2

This patented direct-drive linear motor, or SQUIGGLE motor, is half the size of other piezo
motors, DC motors, and solenoids and yet offers equivalent or better force, stroke, and
operating power (see Table 1).

Table 1: Actuator comparison

One microactuator module for electronic locks incorporates an SQL-1.8 SQUIGGLE motor,
one of the smallest piezoelectric motors currently on the market, in a polymer housing
measuring 4 mm x 4 mm x 14 mm (Figure 3). The tip of the SQUIGGLE motor screw can be
used to push a spring-loaded shear pin, causing the pin to engage (or disengage) a locking
mechanism or latch. Optical limit switches in the module provide simple position feedback,
signaling when the motor screw has reached its forward and reverse motion limits.

Figure 3

Unlike DC motors or solenoids, the SQUIGGLE motor is self-locking, and the screw is
securely held in either position when the power is turned off. This results in lower overall
power consumption compared to traditional actuators because the motor needs to draw
power only long enough to move one stroke to unlatch the door or cabinet – about 0.45
seconds – and then again to re-engage the lock after the door closes. The total duration of
power use is about 1.5 seconds.

A solenoid, on the other hand, will revert to its base state as soon as the power is removed.
Therefore, it must draw power continuously, not only to disengage the latch but also to hold
the latch open long enough for a person to move the door before powering off to re-engage
the lock. The total duration of power use is at least 4 seconds in most cases, or at least 2-3x
longer than the piezoelectric module. In addition, solenoids often draw higher power (up to 3
W) during use.

Bistable solenoids use permanent magnets to hold a second position with the power off.
However, these latching solenoids are larger than standard solenoids and could be even
more susceptible to opening by an external magnetic field. They also draw several watts of
power when moving.
Driving the motor
The SQUIGGLE module is controlled by an external miniature drive card or by an ASIC
controller that can also fit into the lock cylinder with the module. The electronics are powered
by a 3 V battery, with ASIC versions drawing 500-700 mW during use depending on the drive
technique. A direct linear drive circuit results in the smallest footprint. A resonant drive circuit
is larger but reduces power use by adding inductors, which combine with the capacitive
piezoelectric ceramics to set up a resonant circuit in which power is conserved.

The motor driver generates two-phase signals needed to vibrate the piezoelectric elements
at very small amplitude and ultrasonic frequency. The ASIC driver accepts input using an I2C
protocol to define the output voltage (and thereby motor speed) and the direction of motion
and to stop the motor at the end of its stroke based on feedback from the limit switches. The
block diagram is shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4

(click graphic to zoom by 2.2x)

Piezoelectric motor modules are also available with high-resolution linear position sensors,
rather than the simple limit switches. This allows precise speed control and enables the
motor screw tip to be positioned anywhere along its full range of travel.

For example, a tiny autofocus and optical zoom module has two SQUIGGLE motors, two
lens assemblies, and two position sensors in an 8 mm x 12 mm x 28 mm package (Figure 5).
The lens assemblies move independently to a precise location. Application-specific modules
such as this provide closed-loop positioning systems in smaller sizes for a wide range of new
applications.
 Figure 5

When small size is essential, piezoelectric motors provide an alternative to DC micro motors
and solenoids as well as offer much larger travel range and force than the tiny low-force
MEMS devices beginning to emerge from research labs.

Todayís piezoelectric motors are robust, strong, light, and easy on power budgets. These
motors are found in application-specific motion modules for a wide range of embedded
systems, from facility automation to camera phones to medical instruments. A motor this
small can open doors to many other types of miniaturized products.