New Scale Technologies and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center have developed Squiggle motors at 4° Kelvin. The objectives ceramic motors will be used in future spacecraft missions as well as in commercial cryogenic applications. A cryogenic Squiggle motor can operates from room temperature to 100° Kelvin. The tiny motor is an ultrasonic piezoelectric actuator that uses vibrations in a threaded bushing to directly rotate a mating screw. Nanometer resolution over many millimeters of travel has been demonstrated.
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