Inertial micro-switch capable of prolonging contact time

A novel inertial micro-switch capable of prolonging contact time and reducing the contact-bouncing effect is proposed. Based on the nonlinear-spring shock stop, both the moveable and the fixed electrodes are made flexible by using a moveable contact point and a cascaded beam, respectively. The switch was successfully fabricated by bulk micromachining process. From the drop hammer test, the switch-on time increased with an increase of the input acceleration and reached a maximum of 335 μs, which is over 30 times larger than that of the traditional switch; and no bounce occurred.