Components, Building Blocks, and Demonstrations of Spherical Mechanisms in Microelectromechanical Systems

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) are usually fabricated using planar processing methods, which complicates the design of devices capable of complex motions. For applications that need a micromechanism that rotates out of the plane of fabrication with an in-plane rotational input, or that rotates spatially about a point, spherical kinematics may represent an appropriate solution. This paper describes the design of spherical mechanisms for MEMS including the design of joints and links, and what may be the first demonstration of two spherical micromechanism building blocks: the spherical four-bar micromechanism and the spherical slider-crank micromechanism. Two other micromechanisms are demonstrated to illustrate how the building block devices may be used to create more complex devices.