Continuously latchable shuttle using carbon nanotubes on sidewall surfaces

We demonstrated a novel usage of self-adjusted, vertically aligned carbon nanotube (CNT) arrays integrated on the sidewalls of microstructures as latching components. The CNT array-based latching mechanism showed stable latching at multiple latching positions, together with reversible and bidirectional latching capabilities. The latchable shuttle using CNT latch could be adopted for diverse microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) that need precise positioning of movable structures without the necessity of continuous power consumptions to hold the displaced position.