Patent ID: 8183744

Claim:
A piezoelectric motor comprising: a piezoresonator body having a rectangular shape, opposing front and back surfaces and opposing first and second end surfaces, said front and said back surfaces being substantially parallel to first and second longitudinal axes of said piezoresonator body, and said first and said second end surfaces being substantially perpendicular to said first longitudinal axis and substantially parallel to said second longitudinal axis and separated by a length (L) of said piezoresonator body; at least one common electrode disposed on said back surface; and at least 6n excitation electrodes disposed across said front surface in two symmetric rows extending along L, where n is an integer ≧1; wherein a first diagonal group of at least 3n excitation electrodes are electrically coupled, and wherein a second diagonal group of at least 3n excitation electrodes are electrically coupled; wherein said piezoelectric body has an n th order longitudinal vibration mode and a 3n th order bending vibration mode collectively providing at least a symmetric bending deformation of said piezoelectric body along said length L during operation of said piezoelectric motor; wherein said n th order longitudinal vibration mode has a frequency (ν 1 ) along L, and said 3n th order bending vibration mode has a frequency (ν 2 ) along L; and wherein ν 1 and ν 2 are substantially equal.