Novel mechanical transducers for switched capacitor circuits

Abstract

In this paper a novel Switched Capacitor (SC) approach based on mechanical switches driven by vibrations has been developed. The proposed transduction mechanism has been compared with a common class of discrete-time SC-conditioning circuits based on electronic switches (BJT, MOS, pass-transistors). Authors already proposed two magnetically-coupled cantilevers having each one a bistable behavior in order to implement SC topologies. In this paper a novel approach based on multiple coupled cantilevers having stoppers located only on the top of the beams has been presented. This configuration improves previous works in terms of noise and nonlinear effects attenuation, furthermore it represents a suitable solution to perform micro and nano-scale devices. Analytical models are presented here together with experimental characterization results on laboratory prototype.