Design and experiments of fully compliant bistable micromechanisms

This paper proposed a design of a fully compliant bistable micromechanism for the application of switching devices. The topology of a fully compliant four-bar linkage was adopted herein. The central mass of the micromechanism was employed as a carriage to transmit switching components, such as mirror, electrical contact, etc. The equations that predicted the existence of bistable behavior, the extreme positions of the motion range, and the maximum stresses of elastic members were derived. The proposed micromechanisms were fabricated by MUMPs™ of Cronos Integrated Microsystems and an experimental rig was established for the purpose of verifying the theoretical predictions. The compliant bistable micromechanisms were switched either by a probe or actuators to manipulate the central mass. The experimental results demonstrated that the motions observed approximately met the predicted values.