Compliant mechanical logic has attracted interest in recent years as it has the potential to alleviate the issues of traditional transistor-based digital logic. This project designs, simulates and tests a full set of modular compliant elements capable of creating larger digital systems. 
Mechanical logic has many potential advantages over standard electronic circuits. It is resistant to electromagnetic interference and produces less of its own. In addition, it uses less power, and can hold memory without any external power source. 
Micro electromechanical devices have been studied to fill this role for many years, utilizing micro scale mechanical switches to perform Boolean operations with greater performance and efficiency due to their ability to physically disconnect, allowing near instantaneous switching with no leakage current. Wear and tear is a major issue for such devices however, limiting their lifetime. This along with part complexity dissuades their use in everyday applications. 
Compliant mechanisms solve these issues. By replacing what would be pin joints and springs with single, flexible elements, inter-part friction is eliminated potentially increasing part lifetime significantly. This also has the benefits of reducing part complexity, reducing cost, increasing yield and performance, reducing weight and more. 
This project seeks to take advantage of these technologies to create a set of compliant elements that can perform Boolean operations. A Boolean NOT and AND gate, as well as a variety of supporting elements were modelled, tuned and simulated with FEA software and later were fabricated using 3D printing. The elements proposed in this report are modular and fully interoperable, such that they can be directly connected to produce larger circuits, demonstrated through the creation and simulation of a half-adder circuit.

Design of Modular Compliant Mechanical Logic Gates

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/IDETC-CIE/IDETC-CIE2021/volume/85369

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