Snap-Action Bistable Micromechanisms Actuated by Nonlinear Resonance

This paper presents analysis, design, realization, and experimental demonstration of a bistable switch actuated dynamically utilizing mechanical resonance phenomenon. We demonstrated that if a bistable structure is driven into a resonance near one of its states, it may achieve a large enough amplitude of vibration, sufficient to switch between its stable states. Using energy analysis, we concluded that dynamic switching of bistable structures may provide significant energy advantages over conventional static-switching approaches. To confirm the results, we derived analytically the closed-form actuation conditions guaranteeing switching between the states of a bistable structure and applied these conditions to experimental devices. Micromachined prototypes of dynamically actuated bistable switches were designed, fabricated, and characterized. We demonstrated experimentally that resonant dynamic switching provides energy saving of around 60% at atmospheric pressure with proportional increase in efficiency as the pressure decreases.