Exploratory study of using near field acoustic levitation to separaate contacting surfaces

相互作用表面与空气薄膜的分离（尽可能低的运动阻力和最高的运动平滑度）对于高精度运动系统的运行至关重要，例如光刻，硬盘驱动器，硅片的非接触式运输，超高速相机。目前可用的确保分离的方法要么不适合这些系统所需的洁净室环境，要么需要在某些微型设备中不可用的大量空间。显然，需要一种新的方法来创建相互作用表面的分离，而这个项目具有真正突破的潜力。本文提出利用近场声悬浮现象来产生两个相互作用表面之间的物理分离状态。不需要庞大的压缩空气装置来实现这一点，因为接触面利用近场声悬浮将具有自提升能力。该项目旨在结合项目过程中产生的现有知识和新知识，提出可用于实际应用的自举触点设计规则。我们坚信，在项目完成后，一种新型的自悬浮滑动触点，对高精度运动应用很重要，将会出现。这将对新兴的高精度工程技术产生相当大的影响。

The separation of interacting surfaces with a thin film of air (lowest possible resistance to motion and highest smoothness of motion) is of fundamental importance to the operation of high-precision motion systems such as lithography, hard disc drives, contact-less transportation of silicon chips, ultra-high-speed cameras. Currently available methods to secure separation are either unsuitable for the clean room environment required by these systems or they demand to much space which is unavailable in certain micro-scale devices. Clearly, a new method of creating separation of interacting surfaces is required and this project has a potential for a real breakthrough. It is proposed that the phenomenon of near-field acoustic levitation is harnessed to create the state of physical separation between two interaccting surfaces. No bulky compressed air installations are required to achieve this as the contact utilising near-field acoustic levitation will have self-lifting capability.The project aims at combining existing and new knowledge generated during the course of the project to put forward rules for designing a self-lifting contact which could be used in a real life applications. It is strongly believed that on completion of the project a new class of self-levitating sliding contacts, important for high-precision motion applications, will emerge. This will have a considerable impact on new and emerging high precision engineering technologies.