A Low-Profile Design for the Noncontact Ultrasonically Levitated Stage

In this paper, we propose a new low-profile design for a linear bearing based on Near-Field Acoustic Levitation (NFAL). Two flat beams at a 45° angle are used as a guide rail, and a slider is levitated by ultrasonic bending vibrations excited along the beams. The beams are excited by a pair of Langevin transducers with “+”-shaped vibration direction converters (L-L converters) to install the transducers in the same plane of the beam and to lower the total height of the setup. First, the design of the vibration converter is described. Then, a two-phase driving system to excite a traveling wave is investigated theoretically and experimentally. The levitation characteristics and the sliding performance of the prototype stage are measured and discussed.