Movable microplatform floats on a sea of droplets
Microelectromechanical systems, or MEMS, are tiny machines fabricated using equipment and processes developed for the production of electronic chips and devices. They’ve found a wide variety of applications in today’s consumer electronics, but their moving parts can wear out over time as a result of friction. A new approach developed by researchers at MIT could offer a new way of making movable parts with no solid connections between the pieces, potentially eliminating a major source of wear and failure. The new system uses a layer of liquid droplets to support a tiny, movable platform, which essentially floats on top of the droplets. The droplets can be water or some other fluid, and the precise movements of the platform can be controlled electrically, through a system that can alter the dimensions of the droplets to raise, lower, and tilt the platform. The new findings are reported in a paper in Applied Physics Letters, co-authored...