Surface acoustic wave linear motor using silicon slider

Using a silicon fabricated slider, the output force and the maximum traverse velocity of a surface acoustic wave motor has been improved up to 12 times larger force and twice faster speed than the previous motor which used a multi contact points slider. To obtain the high output force, large contact area between the slider and the stator transducer is required. Therefore a silicon slider was developed and tested. As a result, the maximum output force of 3.5 N and the maximum traverse velocity of 0.65 m/s were obtained. The maximum output force of 3.5 N was 90 times of the transducer weight. Such a high output force performance is produced by high power density of surface acoustic wave devices and friction drive.