US Patent 7202763 - MEMS inductive switch

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7202763.html

Due to the difficulty of microfabricating inductive elements such as coils in comparison to capacitive elements such as parallel plates, micromechanical inductive switches are rare. However, this patent teaches one way of achieving such as inductive switch by microfabrication. Claim 1 reads:

1. A micro-electromechanical switching device including at least one pair of inductive elements electrically connected in series, said inductive elements being intended to generate two magnetic fields when current is flowing through said inductive elements, the interaction between these two fields resulting in a displacement of at least one of the inductive elements and a displacement of a mobile contact element linked to said at least one inductive element and intended to switch between two positions, at least one of said positions enabling an electrical connection between at least two conductive elements.