Recently, various multimedia devices such as MP3 player, camera and even TV are integrated into a mobile phone. Consumer demands image cameras in mobile phone to have similar quality and performance as those of dedicated digital cameras. For a good image quality, increasing of resolution requires optical auto focusing, where a small lens group needs to be moved in a limited volume. Due to the efforts for reducing the size of each component in mobile phone, many types of motors have been investigated to achieve AF or zooming functions. However, a motor should be able to provide high controllability and performance to perform auto-focus (AF) camera function. One of the important features that piezoelectric motors have is the ability to maintain moving element position when the motor is not electrically excited. For mobile device application where power consumption is critical, this feature is fitting very well for lens positioning application in phone cameras. In this paper, we have applied our own development of piezoelectric motor for auto focus phone cameras. During auto focusing, we have measured total motor operating time that is less than one percent of total auto focusing time. Average instantaneous power, which is about 65 mWatts, is consumed only when the motor operates, which make piezoelectric motors to be superior over electromagnetic counterparts in terms of energy efficiency.
A modified structure for tiny ultrasonic linear motors has been developed, and various shaft materials have been tested in order to improve dynamic properties. The shaft material has a direct influence on efficiency, reliability, and quality of the motors and their dynamic properties. The shaft material is crucial to achieve high performance. Shafts of with various materials, such as a stainless steel, stainless steel coated with diamond like carbon (DLC), a Pyrex, and a graphite, can make it possible to improve dynamic properties of the motors over a wide range of tribological conditions. For the motor with a stainless steel shaft coated with DLC at 47 kHz, its velocity is 6.5 mm/s and its force is 110 mN. When the motor has a Pyrex shaft, a force of 140 mN is reached at 52 kHz. Accordingly, the maximum force produced by a motor with a graphite shaft is estimated as 97 mN. The velocity of this motor was 15 mm/s. We found that graphite has a fine surface and a directional texture which can help a moving element achieve linear motion. Finally, the use of a cap resulted in significantly improving stable operation. A motor with a graphite or a Pyrex shaft showed very stable operation and improved dynamic characteristics.
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