MEMS Rotating Switch Circuit
ME119 - Microelectromechanical Systems Design Class Project
Overview
MEMS technology is everywhere in our electronic devices and one of the reasons why is due to the high reliability. As the world transitions to increasing energy efficiency and decreasing consumption, my partner and I could conceive a world where an intelligent switching circuit could be used to only power the things that need to be powered. Imagine a home where low-powered sensors track the location of the owner and a switching circuit could be used to only turn on the HVAC in the room they are present.
Design
First, we needed to figure out what fabrication process we will use to produce this device. We decided to use MUMPs as it is very widely used and has a lot of information on how we could fabricate our device.
Next, we determined how the switch circuit would move with electrical input. We decided to use Heat Actuators to control the arms of the circuit. Heat Actuators exploit the properties of heat expansion. When power is put into the heat actuator, the hot arm expands and causes a physical displacement at the end of the arm. With the use of two heat actuators, we can quickly cause movement and we can increase the number of circuits that could be connected. Furthermore, if we alter the amount of power input to the heat actuators, we can change the displacement. This opens up the opportunity to have even more circuits.
Afterward, we determined what types of devices we could use to create the rotating conductor. We decided that the use of a Fixed Joint would be best as it could be produced using the MUMPs process without having too many unnecessary layers. This Fixed Joint would house the rotating conductor.
Finally, we know all of the components that are needed to fabricate this device. We then needed to figure out the masks and the layers that we need to produce this device. Furthermore, this would serve as a sanity check to ensure that this device could be fabricated with the MUMPs process.
Results
We could produce this device with the MUMPs process with the use of 6 masks.
Project Report
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