Filter Wheel Assembly Development using a Piezo-Ceramic Module

Space applications of the motion have been served with DC motors for decades. But their functionality with a gearbox and lubricants and their weights are always an issue for its application. A piezo-motor has an advantage on the direct driving with higher accuracy, smaller size, and no-EMI. We use the piezo-motor to rotate a filter wheel directly in a balloon-borne coronagraph will be launched on September 2019. The piezo-motor works well in a temperature range from -10 to 40 Celsius with high reliability and high positioning accuracy (~0.1degree) with a photo-encoder. We verify its functionality for 7 days. We plan to perform a functional test for 6 months and a wide temperature range (-45-125 Celsius).