Patent ID: 8779886

Claim:
A device comprising: a substrate; a contact disposed on said substrate; and a single-piece structure arranged both as an electrically conductive element and a structural element, disposed on said substrate and composed substantially of metallic material so that a singular time-dependent plastic deformation of the single-piece structure is substantially determined by the time-dependent plastic deformation of constituent metallic material of the single-piece structure, said single-piece structure being configured to be deformable between a first position in which said structure is separated from said contact by a separation distance and a second position in which said single-piece structure contacts said contact and stores mechanical energy, wherein said single-piece structure is configured such that, subsequent to being deformed into the second position at a temperature between about room temperature and about half of a melting temperature of said metallic material for a cumulative time of at least 10 7 seconds, the separation distance in the absence of external forces varies by less than 20 percent over the cumulative time.