Patent ID: 8760036

Claim:
A vibration wave driving apparatus comprising: a vibrator including a vibration body having a frictional surface and an electrical-mechanical energy conversion element; a driven body which has a frictional surface having contact with the frictional surface of the vibrator and which is configured to be pressed through the respective frictional surfaces; and a supporting member having elastically-deformable portions for supporting the vibrator, wherein the driven body is relatively moved by elliptical motion of the vibrator through the respective frictional surfaces, wherein the supporting member is configured such that, when receiving a force in a first direction which is a direction orthogonal to a direction in which the vibrator relatively moves the driven body and a pressed direction in which the driven body is pressed, the supporting member is capable of displacing the frictional surface of the vibrator parallel to the frictional surface of the driven body by rotational deformation of the elastically-deformable portions, wherein the supporting member is at least partially made from a plate-like metal material, and the supporting member has a substantially symmetrical shape with respect to a plane having a normal line in the direction of the relative displacement and a plane having a normal line in the first direction, wherein the supporting member includes two fixed portions disposed at both sides thereof in the direction of the relative displacement, two holding portions disposed at both side thereof in the first direction, and four extending elastically-deformable portions extending in the direction of the relative displacement to connect the fixed portions and the holding portions, and wherein the elastically-deformable portions are at least partially subjected to bending processing so as to have an angle to a plane having a normal line in the pressed direction.