Drag Force Actuated Bistable Microswitches for Flow Sensing

This paper presents bistable microswitches with Au contacts with the aim to combine them with artificial hairs for flow sensing. The Au contacts are applied on both ends of a silicon nitride beam, suspended by a torsional bar at its center. The beam is provided with electrodes for electrostatic actuation, which were used for characterization and can also be used for adaptive control of the mechanical properties of the flow sensor. The electrodes have been actuated in anti-phase to drive the microswitch similarly to an astable multivibrator. Single-sided switching has been measured up to 10 kHz actuation frequency.