Patent ID: 9643839
Date: 2017-05-09
CPC Classifications: B81B,H01H,H01L

Claim:
1. An electromechanical switching device, comprising: a first electrode, comprising layers of a first 2D layered material, which layers exhibit a first surface; a second electrode stacked over the first electrode, comprising layers of a second 2D layered material, which layers exhibit a second surface opposite the first surface; and an actuation mechanism; wherein each of the first and second 2D layered materials has an anisotropic electrical conductivity, which is lower transversely to its layers than in-plane with the layers; at least one of the first and second electrodes is actuatable by the actuation mechanism, such that actuation thereof results in an offset between the first electrode and the second electrode for modification of an electrical conductance transverse to the first surface and the second surface to enable current modulation between the first electrode and the second electrode, the offset defining an amount of overlap between the first and second surfaces such that a first actuation results in no overlap, a second actuation results in a partial overlap, and a third actuation results in a complete overlap; the first surface of the first electrode and the second surface of the second electrode comprising concave polygons having a same shape, dimension, and orientation; and the first electrode comprises two distinct areas alongside the first surface such that the electrical conductance transverse to the first surface and the second surface changes non-linearly and non-parabolically as a function of both the offset between the first electrode and the second electrode and the shape of the first and second surfaces.