The invention discloses a piezoelectric driving
type variable-diaphragm dimming apparatus and method. The apparatus is composed of a variable diaphragm unit, a piezoelectric
actuator and a pedestal. The piezoelectric
actuator consists of four
cantilever beams and eight piezoelectric ceramics; the four
cantilever beams employ square ring beam structures formed by end-to-end connection of metallic elastic base bodies; driving feet in an
interference fit relationship with the outer wall of a moving ring of the variable diaphragm unit are arranged at the midpoints of the inner wall of the four
cantilever beams; and the eight piezoelectric ceramics are arranged on the outer wall of the two sides of the midpoints of the four cantilever beams correspondingly. When the apparatus works, excitation signals with a
phase difference of 90 degrees are applied to the two piezoelectric ceramics on each beam,
elliptic motion is caused at the driving feet, the moving ring is driven to make rotation, and thus a diaphragm piece is driven by the moving ring to rotate, so that expansion or contraction of the aperture of a through hole is realized. According to the invention, with piezoelectric driving, the piezoelectric driving
type variable-diaphragm dimming apparatus has advantages of flat and compact structure, small size, light weight, high adjustment precision,
fast speed, and high reliability; the performances of the
optical instrument are improved; and the production cost is lowered.