Performance improvement of rectangular-plate linear ultrasonic motors using dual-frequency drive.

To improve the performances of a rectangular-plate linear ultrasonic motor for specific applications, a dual-frequency drive has been proposed and investigated. Through careful design of the rectangular piezoelectric ceramic plate, its first longitudinal resonant frequency coincides with its second lateral bending resonant frequency and is one-third of its higher lateral bending resonant frequency. When a square-wave voltage is used to drive the motor, its first longitudinal and second bending and the higher bending vibration modes are excited. Experimental results show that the maximum thrust force and maximum velocity of the motor are over 170% of those obtained from the single-frequency sine-wave drive when the voltage performance of the motor becomes saturated.