Patent ID: 8536762

Claim:
An annular vibration wave actuator, comprising: an annular vibrating portion provided with an electro-mechanical energy conversion element and configured to vibrate upon application of a driving voltage to the electro-mechanical energy conversion element; and an annular driven portion that comes into frictional contact with the vibrating portion and moves relative to the vibrating portion as the vibrating portion vibrates, wherein the annular driven portion includes a contacting portion coming into contact with the vibrating portion and supported by two supporting portions made of a material having a spring property, the two supporting portions including an inner periphery side supporting portion protruding from an inner periphery side of the annular driven portion to a side of the vibrating portion and an outer periphery side supporting portion protruding from an outer periphery side of the annular driven portion to a side of the vibrating portion, and the outer periphery side supporting portion and the inner periphery side supporting portion have different shapes and different stiffness so that a deformation amount of the outer periphery side supporting portion is larger than a deformation amount of the inner periphery side supporting portion.