State of the art and development trends of ultrasonic linear motors

Ultrasonic linear motors have now been investigated for several years. Their key features are high thrust forces related to their volume and good position-accuracy. This contribution consists of two main parts. In the first part we describe the state-of-the-art of linear piezoelectric motors. Characteristics like no-load velocity, maximum thrust force and other technical properties of commercially available devices will be reported as well as those of prototypes. In the second part we report an ongoing research and development project aiming at a linear piezoelectric motor, which is capable of surpassing some of the shortcomings of other piezoelectric motors.