MEMS Inertial Switch for Military Applications

Abstract

We developed a MEMS inertial switch (hereafter, the switch) for an ignition system of missiles. The developed switch consists of four folded beams and a plate suspended by the beams, analogous to a well-known spring-mass system. The plate and four beams compose a single body, which is made from single crystalline silicon wafers by deep reactive ion etching techniques. This process gives high thermal stability and stress-free structure. The switching, either open or close a conductive path, is achieved by the movement of the plate suspended with four folded beams when the acceleration exceeds a predetermined threshold. With a spinning-rate table, the function of the switch was tested at various revolution speeds. The test results are compared with the calculation results by our analytical model.

Keywords

• MEMS inertial switch
• ignition system
• mass-spring system