Patent attributes
A buckling actuator has a connecting section of a supporting beam that is provided with a rotatable supporter for allowing a movable member to be stably maintained at one of two switch positions. A substrate, stationary members, rotatable supporters, and supporting beams support a movable member in a shiftable manner in a y-axis direction, such that the movable member can be shifted between first and second switch positions. Moreover, the rotatable supporters are each provided with arm portions which extend in a radial fashion and support the corresponding supporting beam in a rotatable manner. When the movable member is being shifted, each supporting beam can be rotated without having to bend a corresponding end by a significant amount. Thus, a large barrier ΔE of potential energy of the movable member is set between the first and second switch positions. The movable member can therefore be stably maintained at each of the switch positions even when electric power is not supplied to electrodes. Furthermore, each arm portion prevents the movable member from being displaced in an x-axis direction.
