MPhil Student Won Outstanding Poster Paper Award at Transducers 2021 the 21st International Conference on Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems
Zili TANG, MPhil student of Prof. Levent YOBAS, received Outstanding Poster Paper Award at Transducers 2021 the 21st International Conference on Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems for her paper "High durability latch-lock bi-stable switch on Y-shaped cantilever".
Zili Tang, Qi Tao, Zehua Lan, Zong Liu, Toshiyuki Tsuchiya, Xiaohong Wang, and Man Wong
High Durability Latch-Lock Bi-Stable Switch On Y-Shaped Cantilever
Bi-stable switches are structures with two stable states. Since no energy is required to maintain their states, bi-stable switches can save energy and thus have a wide range of applications from biomedical appliances to optical networks. In this study, the research team presented a silicon bi-stable mechanical switch based on latch-lock mechanism. The major structure of this bi-stable switch is a Y-shaped cantilever with a latch on its end as shown in blue in the operation principle figure below. One upward push from the push bar will engage the latch pair, setting the bi-stable switch to “on” state. Another push will disengage the latch pair, resetting the switch to “off” state. The bi-stable switch demonstrates high durability by remaining intact after ~270,000 switching cycles.
This paper was developed from the term project of ELEC5010 Introduction to the Design & Implementation of Micro-Systems. It is a course initiated by HKUST and the University of Kyoto and Tsinghua University has recently joined. To encourage cross-border cooperation, multiple project teams are formed with each team consisting of students from the three universities. There are a total of 6 publications from term projects since the course was offered, with one of them published a journal paper in the Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems (JMEMS).
