Friction drive of an SAW motor. Part II: analyses.

The mechanics of the friction drive of a surface acoustic wave motor were investigated by means of contact mechanics theory. As a means to control the contact condition, the motor's slider had projections on its frictional surface. Assuming the projection was a rigid circular punch and the slider body was an elastic half-space allowed application of contact mechanics formulae to the analyses of the friction drive. Because the projection contacted the Rayleigh wave vibration, the projection's responses were considered dynamic; thus, the dynamics were also analyzed in the same framework of contact mechanics formulae. Moreover, the analyses were applied to measurements of the projection's displacement to examine the detailed mechanics during the friction drive. We calculated the contact/frictional forces based on the measurement and indicated the necessity of further investigation of the surface acoustic wave motor's friction drive, because the usual friction law was unable to explain the measurement.