Compliant Mechanism based Planar Inductors for Reconfigurable Magneto-Inductive Wave Devices

A reconfigurable planar inductor based on bistable compliant mechanism is proposed. Flexible snapping of wire elements is used for modification of the loop area and self inductance as well as for the mutual coupling between laterally arranged multiple inductors in a magneto-inductive wave (MIW) device. A mechanical model is presented building the basis for an analytical inductance model. The bistable reconfigurability is demonstrated experimentally and confirmed by numerical simulation results.