Patent ID: 8294334

Claim:
An ultrasonic motor comprising: a vibrator having a dimension ratio of a rectangle in a cross-section orthogonal to a central axis; and a rotor that contacts an elliptical vibration generating surface of the vibrator and that is rotation driven around the central axis that is orthogonal to the elliptical vibration generating surface of the vibrator, wherein an elliptical vibration is generated by combining a longitudinal primary resonance vibration resulting from an expansion and a contraction of the vibrator in a direction of the central axis and a torsional secondary resonance vibration or a torsional tertiary resonance vibration resulting from twisting around the central axis, the dimension ratio of the rectangle of the vibrator is chosen such that a resonance frequency of the longitudinal primary resonance vibration and a resonance frequency of the torsional secondary resonance vibration or the torsional tertiary resonance vibration match, the vibrator includes a plurality of regions in a surface orthogonal to the central axis, deformations of the regions adjacent to each other along the direction of the central axis are mutually different in the regions, and the vibrator expands and contracts in a direction orthogonal to a polarization direction thereof.