JP2003284315A - Two-dimensional motor-driven actuator and input unit using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a planar motor-driven actuator by which a unit and an apparatus are further reduce in thicknesses by using the actuator as a drive source. <P>SOLUTION: The planar motor-driven actuator comprises a stator 1 for generating a variable magnetic field under electric control, and a movable element 2 receiving the energizing force of the magnetic field of the stator 1 for a planar operation. In this actuator, the stator 1 has a plurality of coils 4 arranged in a matrix and a board 3 controllable in the direction of the magnetic field generated from the coils 4 by controlling the energization of the coils 4. The element 2 receives the attracting force and repelling force of a direction variable magnetic field given by the coils 4 arranged in the matrix in the stator 1 since the element 2 conducts a planar operation along the stator 1. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electric actuator and an input device using the same, and more particularly to a two-dimensional electric actuator in which a mover performs a two-dimensional operation and an input device using the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As electric actuators, a rotary electric motor that performs a rotary operation and a linear motor that performs a linear operation are known as typical ones. By the way, the conventional rotary electric motor has a limit in reducing the thickness of the device or equipment when it is used as a drive source of the device or equipment. That is, since the rotary electric motor is basically based on a three-dimensional structure, it has a certain three-dimensional size or more according to its output, which hinders the reduction of the thickness of the device or device. On the other hand, since the linear motor operates only in the linear motion, the functionality of the linear motor as a drive source of an apparatus or device is naturally limited.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made against the background of the above conventional circumstances, and an electric actuator which can be used as a driving source to further reduce the thickness of an apparatus or device. It is intended to provide an input device using such an electric actuator.

[0004]

According to the present invention, the stator of the electric actuator has a two-dimensional planar structure in order to obtain the electric actuator which enables further thinning of the apparatus or device. That is, a stator is formed by holding a plurality of coils in a matrix arrangement on a two-dimensional substrate made of a non-magnetic material such as a film substrate made of a synthetic resin which is a non-magnetic material. By controlling the energization, a directionally variable magnetic field is generated in each coil. The mover receives an attractive force and a repulsive force generated by the direction variable magnetic field of the stator as an urging force, so that a two-dimensional operation including a rotational operation and a linear operation is performed along the surface direction of the stator. The two-dimensional stator can be formed in an extremely thin size, for example, 2000 μm or less. In addition, the mover can be made to perform a two-dimensional operation along such a thin stator in a close state. Therefore, by using this as a drive source, it is possible to greatly reduce the thickness of the device or equipment.

Therefore, the electric actuator according to the present invention has a stator that generates a variable magnetic field by electric control, and a mover that receives a biasing force of the magnetic field of the stator and performs a two-dimensional operation. A two-dimensional electric actuator, wherein the stator is composed of a substrate in which a plurality of coils are arranged in a matrix and the direction of the magnetic field generated by each coil can be controlled by controlling the energization of each coil. And the movable element performs a two-dimensional operation along the stator by receiving the attractive force and the repulsive force due to the variable direction magnetic field provided by the matrix-shaped coils in the stator as the urging force. .

Such a two-dimensional electric actuator enables an input device having a new function by making the most of its characteristic of enabling a two-dimensional operation.
That is, it is possible to realize an input device capable of performing an input operation while moving the "operation button" in a desired magnetic field pattern such as a linear movement or a rotation movement by controlling energization of each coil in a matrix arrangement. . In such an input device according to the present invention, a matrix-type input medium formed by arranging conductors in a matrix on a substrate is interposed between a stator and a mover, and the matrix-type input medium is provided via the mover. Is to generate an input signal.

A particularly suitable matrix input medium in view of making devices and devices thinner is to insulate a film substrate having wiring for X coordinate detection and a film substrate having wiring for Y coordinate detection. 2 is a membrane sheet having a structure in which layers are formed in a facing state with the spacer of FIG. By interposing such a membrane sheet between the stator and the mover to apply pressure to the mover,
The X-coordinate detection wiring and the Y-coordinate detection wiring at a predetermined position can be electrically connected to generate an input signal. Then, the input signal thus generated can be used as an input for exhibiting the function realized by the device or apparatus.

Further, the above-mentioned input device can be constructed such that the mover itself is provided with the switch means. When the matrix input medium described above is, for example, coordinate input means, the switch means of the mover can be used as data input means or data selection means for left and right mouse clicks, for example.

[0009]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. FIG. 1 schematically shows the configuration of a two-dimensional electric actuator according to one embodiment. As shown in the figure, the two-dimensional electric actuator has a stator 1 and a mover 2. The stator 1 is formed by forming a plurality of coils 4, 4, ... In a matrix array on a planar substrate 3 made of a non-magnetic material such as a synthetic resin material. The substrate 3 can be extremely thin, and is usually formed to have a thickness of, for example, about 20 to 2000 μm. As the substrate 3, a film substrate can be used when thinning of the device is strongly required.
A hard thin plate-shaped substrate may be used. Also this substrate 3
The coil 4 to be held by is also thin and formed in a two-dimensional spiral shape. As shown in FIG. 2, each coil 4 is formed on the front and back surfaces of the substrate 3, and the front surface coil 4 and the rear surface coil 4 are connected through the through hole 3a.
The coils 4 on the front and back sides are formed as mutually opposite windings. The arrow shown in FIG. 2 is an example of the direction of the current flowing through the coil 4. Conducting wires (not shown) are extended from each coil 4, that is, each coil 4 on the front surface and each coil 4 on the back surface, and the tips of the conducting wires are gathered in a terminal portion 5 and through this terminal portion 5. Each coil 4 is connected to a control system (not shown).
Each coil 4 is energized by its control system so that the direction of the magnetic field formed by it is variably controlled by the control system. Such a stator 1 can be manufactured by, for example, a printed wiring technique.

The mover 2 shown in FIG. 1 is formed of a permanent magnet. The mover 2 receives a biasing force by the direction-changing magnetic field provided by the matrix-shaped coils 4, 4, ... In the stator 1, so that the mover 2 performs a two-dimensional operation along the stator 1, that is, a planar operation. Do. However, in order to use the two-dimensional operation of the mover 2 which receives the biasing force of the coil 4 as an effective drive source, the mover 2 is moved in a predetermined trajectory or pattern in a two-dimensional operation. Some sort of regulatory element is needed to do so. That is, for example, in a rotary electric motor, the same rotary element as that of the rotary operation of the rotor is restricted by the bearing that supports the rotary shaft. Such a regulation element is given in relation to a device or equipment in which the two-dimensional electric actuator is incorporated as a drive source. An example will be described later.

FIG. 3 schematically shows the relationship between the coil 4 and the mover 2, and FIG. 4 schematically shows the relationship between the magnetic field generated by the coil 4 and the mover. Although three windings are temporarily formed on the front and back sides of the substrate 3 in the figure, the number of windings and the number of layers of the coil 4 are appropriately set according to the required output. FIG. 3 also shows the size relationship between the coil 4 and the mover 2. That is, it is a preferable condition that the width of the mover 2 be about twice or more the arrangement pitch of the coils 4 or more in order to efficiently receive the biasing force of the coil 4 due to the magnetic field.

As shown in FIG. 4, the mover 2 is two-dimensionally subjected to an urging force by a directionally variable magnetic field generated by the coils 4 under energization control of each coil 4 from a control system (not shown). Action. That is, in the example of FIG. 4, the size of the mover 2 is about twice the pitch of the coil 4, and it is assumed that the mover 2 of this size moves in the arrow D direction. In the coils 4 and 4, the same magnetic pole as the magnetic pole (N pole) of the surface of the mover 2 facing the substrate is generated on the side facing the mover 2.
Energization control for 4 is performed. As a result, a repulsive force is generated between the two coils 4 and 4 and the mover 2, and the mover 2 is biased in the arrow D direction by using this repulsive force. On the other hand, in the two coils 4 positioned on the front side of the mover 2, a magnetic pole opposite to the magnetic pole (N pole) of the substrate facing surface of the mover 2 is generated on the side facing the mover 2, Energization control for the coils 4 and 4 is performed. With this, the two coils 4,
An attractive force is generated between the movable element 2 and the movable element 2, and the movable element 2 is urged in the arrow direction D by using this attractive force. In this way, each coil 4 of the substrate 3 is moved according to the magnetic pole on the substrate facing surface of the mover 2.
By performing energization control for the movable element 2 and applying a biasing force to the movable element 2, the movable element 2 can be moved in the arrow direction D along the stator 1.

Next, an optical disk drive which is an example of a device using the two-dimensional type electric actuator according to the present invention as a drive source will be described. FIG. 5 schematically shows the structure of the optical disk drive. The optical disk drive of this example is configured to use a two-dimensional electric actuator as a drive source for loading / unloading the optical disk 11 such as a CD or DVD and rotating the optical disk 11. Specifically, while the stator 12 having the above-described configuration is installed inside the housing 13, a permanent magnet (not shown) is attached to the back surface of the optical disk 11 to load the optical disk 11 itself. -It is designed as a mover for unloading and rotating.

Therefore, the loading / unloading operation of the optical disk 11 is performed by receiving the urging force for linear operation from the stator 12 via the permanent magnet attached to the back surface of the optical disk 11. With respect to the linear movement of the optical disk 11 for the loading / unloading operation, the flat plate-shaped guide portion 14 fixedly provided in the housing 13 serves as the above-mentioned restricting element. Also, the optical disc 1
Similarly, the rotation operation of No. 1 is performed by receiving the urging force for rotation operation from the stator 12 via the permanent magnet attached to the back surface of the optical disk 11. The column-shaped rotation support base 15 that rotatably supports the optical disk 11 functions as the above-described restriction element in this rotation operation. Rotation support stand 15
Is attached by inserting it into a hole 14a formed in the guide portion 14. Reading and writing on the rotating optical disc 11 by the optical pickup 16 is similar to the conventional optical disc drive.
The laser light emitted by the pickup 16 which moves linearly in the radial direction of 1 is irradiated onto the optical disc 11 through the rectangular elongated hole 14b formed in the guide portion 14.

FIG. 6 shows a preferred pattern example of the permanent magnet for the mover provided to the optical disk 11. That is, N poles and S poles are alternately arranged on the surface of the optical disk 11 facing the stator. Then, in order to apply a biasing force for linear movement to the optical disk 11 by the stator 12, the stator 1 is formed so that a magnetic pole pattern substantially the same as the magnetic pole pattern of the optical disk 11 is formed as shown in FIG.
The direction of the current flowing through each coil 4 of No. 2 is controlled. When the magnetic pole pattern of the stator 12 thus formed is gradually moved in parallel in the traveling direction D, the optical disc 1
1 moves in the traveling direction D accordingly. After this parallel movement, in order to rotationally drive the optical disk 11 positioned at the position shown by the solid line in FIG. 5, in the same way as in the case of parallel movement, the direction of the current flowing through the coil 4 according to the magnetic pole pattern of the optical disk 11 is changed. The direction of the current flowing through each coil 4 is controlled so that the magnetic pole pattern of the stator 12 formed by control is rotated about the center of the optical disk 11. In this way, the optical disk 11 can be rotated.

The two-dimensional electric actuator according to the present invention is characterized by enabling two-dimensional operation. This feature is useful as a drive source for general devices and equipment, and is useful for drastically reducing the thickness of the devices and equipment, as well as input operation while moving the "operation buttons" in a desired pattern. It is also useful in enabling an input device to perform. Hereinafter, an embodiment of such an input device using the two-dimensional electric actuator according to the present invention will be described. FIG. 8 schematically shows the configuration of the input device according to the embodiment. The input device incorporates a stator 22 and a mover 23 inside a housing 21.
And a movable element 23, a membrane switch 24 is interposed as a matrix type input medium. As shown in FIG. 8, the membrane switch 24 is formed by arranging conductors 26 in a matrix on a planar insulating film substrate 25. The membrane switch 24 is adapted to generate an input signal by operating the mover 23. As a structure for this purpose, in the present embodiment, a structure is provided in which the mover 23 is provided with a switch section 27 and an input signal is generated in the membrane switch 24 by operating the switch section 27.

Specifically, the mover 23 performs a two-dimensional operation along the membrane switch 24 in a state of being electrically non-contact with the conductor wire 26 of the membrane switch 24. Regarding this operation, the guide sheet 28 provided so as to be stretched over the housing 21 acts as a restricting element for the movement trajectory or pattern of the mover 23. When the mover 23 reaches a desired position by this operation, the switch portion 27 is operated there, and the electrical contact portion (not shown) provided on the mover 23 contacts the conductor wire 26 accordingly. Then, the membrane switch 24 outputs the input signal. Therefore, the input signal can be accompanied by position information dynamically selected by the two-dimensional movement of the mover 23 or desired information superimposed on this position information. Such an input device is useful as, for example, an input device for a personal computer or an input device for a computer game machine.

In the above-mentioned example, as the membrane switch 24, the conductive wires 26 are arranged in a matrix on the insulating film substrate 25 formed in a plane, and the conductive wires 26 are formed at the contact portion of the mover 23 to receive the input signal. Although an example of the configuration for outputting is shown, the following may be adopted, for example.
As a "matrix type input medium", a film substrate on which the X-coordinate detecting wiring forming the conducting wire 26 is formed and a film substrate on which the Y-coordinate detecting wiring forming the conducting wire 26 is formed are opposed to each other via an insulating spacer. A membrane sheet formed by laminating the above is used. Then, the mover presses the membrane sheet at a predetermined position to detect coordinates (coordinate input). Further, when the “matrix type input medium” is configured in this way, for example, by separately providing the mover 23 with an input switch 23a for performing a right click input or a left click input of a mouse, the membrane sheet Coordinate detection (coordinate input)
It is also possible to allow separate input different from. These are also useful as input devices for personal computers and game machines, for example.

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention, the mover receives the urging force of the variable magnetic field by the planar stator having the coils in the matrix arrangement, and the mover includes the rotating operation and the linear operation. A two-dimensional electric actuator that performs a three-dimensional operation is obtained. The stator of this two-dimensional electric actuator can be made extremely thin, and the mover can be made to perform two-dimensional operation along the stator in a close state. Therefore, by using this as a drive source, it is possible to greatly reduce the thickness of the device or equipment. The input device according to the present invention is configured such that a matrix type input medium is interposed between a stator and a mover, and an input signal is generated in the matrix type input medium via the mover. By accommodating the position information dynamically selected by the two-dimensional operation, the input with higher functionality becomes possible.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically showing a configuration of a two-dimensional electric actuator according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of coils formed above and below a substrate.

FIG. 3 is a diagram schematically showing a relationship between a coil and a mover.

FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically showing a relationship between a magnetic field generated by a coil and a mover.

FIG. 5 is a diagram schematically showing a configuration of an optical disc drive using a two-dimensional electric actuator according to the present invention as a drive source.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a magnetic pole pattern formed on an optical disk to make it a mover.

FIG. 7 is a diagram schematically showing a relationship between a magnetic pole pattern of an optical disk and a magnetic pole pattern formed by a coil of a stator.

FIG. 8 is a diagram schematically showing a configuration of an input device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram schematically showing the configuration of a membrane switch.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Stator 2 Movable Element 3 Substrate 4 Coil 24 Membrane Switch (Matrix Type Input Medium) 25 Substrate 26 Conductor

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A two-dimensional electric actuator having a stator that generates a variable magnetic field by electrical control and a mover that receives a biasing force of the magnetic field of the stator to perform a two-dimensional operation. Then, the stator is configured by a substrate in which a plurality of coils are arranged in a matrix and the direction of the magnetic field generated by each coil can be controlled by controlling the energization of each coil, and A two-dimensional electric actuator in which the mover performs a two-dimensional operation along the stator by receiving an attractive force and a repulsive force due to a direction-changeable magnetic field provided by a matrix-shaped coil in the stator as an urging force. 2. The two-dimensional electric actuator according to claim 1, wherein the substrate is an insulating film substrate. 3. An input device using the two-dimensional electric actuator according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a matrix type input medium formed by arranging conductors in a matrix on a substrate is movable with a stator. An input device, which is interposed between the elements and in which the matrix type input medium generates an input signal via the mover. 4. The matrix type input medium is formed by laminating a film substrate on which an X coordinate detection wiring is formed and a film substrate on which a Y coordinate detection wiring is formed in a state of being opposed to each other via an insulating spacer. The input device according to claim 3, which is a membrane sheet. 5. The input device according to claim 3, wherein the mover itself is provided with a switch means.