Miniature, planar, inertially-damped, inertially-actuated delay slider

Abstract

A miniature, planar, inertially-damped, inertially-actuated delay slider uator is micromachined on a substrate and consists of a 'slider', with zig-zag or stair-step-like patterns on the side edges, interacting with similar vertical-edged zig-zag patterns on 'racks' which are positioned across a small gap on each side. The slider has been released from the substrate, and is captured vertically in its track by a non-interfering lattice or cover or other feature that bridges across from the top of one rack to the other. The racks are fixed to the substrate and the slider is forced axially down the 'track' by an inertial load in the slider's axial direction. The slider is drawn along the track such that the 'teeth' on the right edge of the slider engage with the teeth on the right rack. The slider is forced to move to the left as it slides down the faces on the right rack, until it is thrown clear of the right rack and goes across to engage similarly with the left rack. In this way the slider zig-zags under the continuing inertial forces as it also moves axially down the track toward the objective function. The time it takes to do this is the programmed delay. The objective function is anything the slider can act upon, such as a switch, a latch, a light beam, a capacitive pickup, etc.