Highly Selective Tilted Triangular Springs with Constant Force Reaction

Abstract

Guiding mechanisms are among the most elementary components of MEMS. Usually, a spring is required to be compliant in only one direction and stiff in all other directions. We introduce triangular springs with a preset tilting angle. The tilting angle lowers the reaction force and implements a constant reaction force. We show the influence of the tilting angle on the reaction force, on the spring stiffness and spring selectivity. Furthermore, we investigate the influence of the different spring geometry parameters on the spring reaction force. We experimentally show tilted triangular springs exhibiting constant force reactions in a large deflection range and a comb-drive actuator guided by tilted triangular springs. This is an expanded research article based on the conference paper “Tilted Triangular Springs with Constant Force Reaction” that was presented at EUROSENSORS2023 conference, 10–13 September 2023 in Lecce, Italy.