Piezo motors and electronics

Piezo motors are linear or rotary motors offering high precision and blocking at rest. These properties make them suitable for long stroke micro positioning applications.

CEDRAT TECHNOLOGIES has experimented different kinds of piezoelectric motors either by retrofitting / testing standard piezomotors or by developing new original concepts, in the context of space applications or fine instrumentation projects:

  • Inchworm piezo motor : These motors are based on the quasi-static steps of the piezo stator which drives a second member. They offer a good controllability but are slow (<10mm/s) and expensive as multi-phases. CEDRAT TECHNOLOGIES has experimented such motors with some first versions of its LPM Linear Piezo Motor (in a CNES French space agency project) or with the RPMHPP Rotating Piezo Motor (in ESA Eu Space Agency project).
  • Ultrasonic motor (USM) : These motors are based on an ultrasonic vibration (generally elliptic and using resonance) of the stator which drives a second member (as a rotor). They are fast (> 100mm/s), offer a medium controllability and are sensitive to variations of loads and environment. Their electronics can be complex to track resonance. The LPM20-3 space qualified Linear Piezo Motor from CEDRAT TECHNOLOGIES is a multi-mode ultrasonic motor (MMUM). It is vacuum compatible and space qualified thanks to CNES and EADS projects. Rotating piezo electric motors, such as the RPA for ESA, and rotating magnetostrictive motors have also been developed by CEDRAT TECHNOLOGIES using this concept to offer a large torque at low speed. CEDRAT TECHNOLOGIES has also retrofitted Travelling Wave Ultrasonic Motors (TWUM) from Shinsei to make them space compatible.
  • Inertial Stepping Motor (ISM) : These motors also called (Smooth) Impact Drive Mechanisms (IDM or SIDM) are based on the transient steps of the piezo stator which drives a second member. They offer medium speeds (10-50mm/s). These motors need only one piezo ceramic and one electronic channel, leading to a good miniaturization potential. CEDRAT TECHNOLOGIES has developed the SPA Stepping Piezo Actuator, a new piezo motor based on the ISM concept and benefiting from the APA® heritage.

The following examples show various prototypes and customised products. To learn more about our piezo motors see our related publications on rotating piezo motors or on linear piezo motors. A developer kit based on the SPA30uXS is also available.

INCHWORM PIEZO MOTOR

This piezo motor demonstrated a power to mass density among the top one in the world.

Applications

Aerospace instrumentation, telescope

STATUS

Prototype

Customized Stepping Piezo Actuators: Tripod Actuators TrAC

The Tripod Actuator by Cedrat Technologies (TrAC) is a 3 dof mechanism offering +/-35° rotation around X and Y axis and a 10mm Z translation stroke into a low volume of Ø50x50mm.

Applications

Nano positioning, Locking, Refocusing, Piezo Valves, Micro Robots …

STATUS

Prototype

Micro Stepping Piezo Actuators : SPA30uXS

The Stepping Piezo Actuator SPA30uXS is a new high-force density non-magnetic stepping linear micro piezomotor : Mass < 1gr ; Blocking force at rest > 0.5N ; Max actuation force > 0.2N ; Stroke > 3mm ; Speed > 50mm/s ; Resolution < 1nm

Applications

Embedded microsystems, cameras, MRI-compatible, microvalves, medical implant

STATUS

Product

Force Stepping Piezo Actuator: FSPA

FSPAs are new long stroke linear stepping piezo actuators for Nano positioning applications. FSPA offers much higher forces than SPA, but much lower speed.

Applications

Micro/Nano positioning, Locking mechanism…

STATUS

Product

Rotary Piezo Actuator: RPA

RPA is a Resonant Ultrasonic Rotary Piezoelectric Motor developed for space applications (robotic arm joint, instrument motorisation).

Applications

Aerospace, robot arm, High positioning accuracy…

STATUS

Space evaluated

Piezo Motor Upgrade

CEDRAT TECHNOLOGIES has upgraded commercial off the shelf – COTS rotative piezoelectric motors by changing several parts and carrying out acceptance tests. For ex TWUM motors have been made space compatible.

Applications

Aerospace, defence, non-magnetism instruments

STATUS

Prototype

Rotary Piezo Motor: RPMHPP

RPMHPP is a Quasi-static stepping Rotary Piezoelectric Motor for space telescope applications. It displays the general advantages of a piezo motor, but an extremely high angular resolution and a wide temperature range.

Applications

Aerospace, High angular Precision Positioning, telescope…

STATUS

Space evaluated

Linear Piezo Motor: LPM20-3

LPM20-3 is an Ultrasonic Linear Piezoelectric Motor developed for space applications with CNES support. It offers high forces (20-50N) and speed (20mm/s) with very low electric power (12W).

Applications

Aerospace, Refocusing, High positioning accuracy…

STATUS

Space evaluated