A Novel Configurable MEMS Inertial Switch using Microscale Liquid-Metal Droplet

This paper presents a novel MEMS inertial switch using a microscale liquid-metal droplet as an active component. Our inertial switch is realized using the advantageous properties of the liquid-metal droplet (i.e., high surface tension, high density and electrical conduction) and the selectively modified contact surface. The modified contact surface contains microstructures which provide enhancement of non-wetting behavior as well as minimization of the contact angle hysteresis (CAH) of the liquid-metal droplet on the surface. Integrating the liquid-metal droplet, which is used as an inertial proof mass, inside the configured channel containing the microstructures on the surface, a dramatically simplified yet effective mechanism of inertial switch is realized. Various channel configurations can be designed for different threshold-levels of acceleration.