Patent ID: 8390172

Claim:
An ultrasonic motor comprising: a transducer in which a ratio between lengths of a short side and long side, constituting a section perpendicular to a center axis of the transducer having a substantially rectangular shape, is set to a ratio which makes a resonance frequency of longitudinal vibration of the transducer stretching and contracting in the center axis direction substantially coincide with a resonance frequency of twisting vibration about the center axis as a twisting axis, the longitudinal vibration and the twisting vibration are simultaneously excited, and elliptic vibration obtained by combining the vibrations is excited; a driven member which is pressed against an elliptic vibration generation surface, of the transducer, in which the elliptic vibration is excited, and is driven to rotate about the center axis as a rotation axis by the elliptic vibration; and a pressing mechanism unit which presses the transducer against the driven member to press the elliptic vibration generation surface of the transducer against the driven member, wherein the transducer includes a plurality of stacked piezoelectric sheets on which internal electrodes are formed, the internal electrodes form a plurality of driving activated areas and a plurality of vibration detection activated areas in the transducer, the plurality of driving activated areas are located in portions, of the transducer, which correspond to a node of the longitudinal vibration and an anti-node of twisting vibration, so as to be symmetrical about a central plane in the stacking direction and a plane which is perpendicular to the stacking direction and includes the center axis, and are polarized in the stacking direction, and the plurality of vibration detection activated areas are located in portions, of the transducer, which correspond to a node of the longitudinal vibration and an anti-node of the twisting vibration and are closer to the central plane than the driving activated areas, and are polarized in the stacking direction.