Pull-in control in microswitches using acoustic Casimir forces

In this paper we present a theoretical calculation of the acoustic Casimir pressure in a model microsystem. Unlike the quantum case, the acoustic Casimir pressure can be made attractive or repulsive depending on the frequency bandwidth of the acoustic noise. As a case study, a one-degree-of-freedom simple-lumped system in an acoustic resonant cavity is considered. We show that the frequency bandwidth of the acoustic field can be tuned to increase the stability in existing microswitch systems by selecting the sign of the force. The acoustic intensity and frequency bandwidth are introduced as two additional control parameters of the microswitch.