| > I wonder if you can make an unpickable lock with MEMS I'm not sure what you mean. MEMS are generally tiny and I'm not sure why you'd need a ~1mm safe? But MEMS relay switches, which mechanically connect/disconnect circuits, exist. > The other thing is, can the gears be used to store potential energy? Springs and fluid reservoirs aren't very energy or power dense; good batteries and capacitors are much more effective and reliable. MEMS flywheels have been built and are potentially competitive, but are also extremely tricky to build. > The key here might be if you can build a micro electric generator. This is doable and an area of active research (for, say, charging low-power devices when a human walks, definitely not grid-scale power). Magnets are hard to work with in MEMS, so other techniques (piezoelectricity, triboelectricity) are used. [1] is currently badly-written but mentions most important bits. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanogenerator |