Compact on-chip microtensile tester with prehensile grip mechanism

Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems

Volumn 20, Issue 4, 2011, Pages 1043-1053

  Hazra, Siddharth S ^a   Baker, Michael S ^b   Beuth, Jack L ^a   De Boer, Maarten P ^a  

^a CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b SANDIA NATIONAL LABORATORIES   (United States)

Author keywords

High throughput; microelectromechanical systems (MEMS); on chip; polysilicon strength; uniaxial tensile tester

Indexed keywords

A-THERMAL; ACCURATE MEASUREMENT; ANALYSIS AND TESTING; APPLIED FORCES; CALIBRATION FACTORS; CROSS-SECTIONAL SHAPE; FORCE CALIBRATION; FRACTURE DISPLACEMENT; FRACTURE STRAIN; HIGH STRAIN RESOLUTION; HIGH THROUGHPUT; IN-PLANE; MATERIAL STRENGTH; MICRO TENSILE TESTS; MICRO-ENGINEERING; MICROELECTROMECHANICAL SYSTEMS (MEMS); MICROTENSILE; MONOLAYER FILM; NANOSCALE DEVICE; NONLINEAR SPRINGS; ON CHIPS; OUT-OF-PLANE; SAMPLE SIZES; SMALL AREA; SMALL SCALE; STATISTICAL STRENGTH; STIFFNESS RATIOS; STRESS GRADIENT; SYSTEM FEATURES; TENSILE BAR; TENSILE TESTERS;

ALIGNMENT; CALIBRATION; FRACTURE; MEMS; MICROELECTROMECHANICAL DEVICES; MICROMECHANICS; MONOLAYERS; POLYCRYSTALLINE MATERIALS; POLYSILICON; SILICON CARBIDE; STIFFNESS;

FINITE ELEMENT METHOD;

EID: 79961174427     PISSN: 10577157     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1109/JMEMS.2011.2159097     Document Type: Article

References (53)

1. Y. W. Cheng, D. T. Read, J. D. McColskey, and J. E. Wright, "A tensiletesting technique for micrometer-sized free-standing thin films," Thin Solid Films, vol. 484, no. 1/2, pp. 426-432, Jul. 2005. (Pubitemid 40751932)
2. H. J. Lee, P. Zhang, and J. C. Bravman, "Tensile failure by grain thinning in micromachined aluminum thin films," J. Appl. Phys., vol. 93, no. 3, pp. 1443-1451, Feb. 2003.
3. D. T. Read, Y. W. Cheng, R. R. Keller, and J. D. McColskey, "Tensile properties of free-standing aluminum thin films," Scripta Mat., vol. 45, p. 583, 2001.
4. D. T. Read and J. W. Dally, "A new method for measuring the strength and ductility of thin-films," J. Mater. Res., vol. 8, no. 7, pp. 1542-1549, Jul. 1993.
5. J. Tregilgas, "Amorphous hinge material," Adv. Mater. Process., vol. 163, no. 1, pp. 46-49, Jan. 2005.
6. P. Zhang, H.-J. Lee, and J. C. Bravman, "Mechanical tests of free-standing aluminum microbeams for MEMS application, in Mechanical Properties of Structural Films," in Proc. ASTM STP 1413, C. L. Muhlstein and S. B. Brown, Eds., West Conshohocken, PA, 2001.
7. I. Chasiotis, C. Bateson, K. Timpano, A. S. McCarty, N. S. Barker, and J. R. Stance, "Strain rate effects on the mechanical behavior of nanocrystalline Au films," Thin Solid Films, vol. 515, no. 6, pp. 3183-3189, Feb. 2007. (Pubitemid 46137985)
8. R. D. Emery and G. L. Povirk, "Tensile behavior of free-standing gold films. Part I. Coarse-grained films," Acta Mater., vol. 51, no. 7, pp. 2067-2078, Apr. 2003.
9. R. D. Emery and G. L. Povirk, "Tensile behavior of free-standing gold films-Part II: Fine-grained films," Acta Mater., vol. 51, no. 7, pp. 2079-2087, Apr. 2003.
10. H. D. Espinosa, B. C. Prorok, and M. Fischer, "A methodology for determining mechanical properties of freestanding thin films and MEMS materials," J. Mech. Phys. Sol., vol. 51, no. 1, pp. 47-67, Jan. 2003. (Pubitemid 35282039)
11. H. D. Espinosa, B. C. Prorok, and B. Peng, "Plasticity size effects in freestanding submicron polycrystalline FCC-films subjected to pure tension," J. Mech. Phys. Sol., vol. 52, p. 667, 2004.
12. M. A. Haque and M. T. A. Saif, "Deformation mechanisms in freestanding nanoscale thin films: A quantitative in situ transmission electron microscope study," Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, vol. 101, no. 17, pp. 6335-6340, Apr. 2004. (Pubitemid 38585974)
13. H. B. Huang and F. Spaepen, "Tensile testing of free-standing Cu, Ag and Al thin films and Ag/Cu multilayers," Acta Mater., vol. 48, no. 12, pp. 3261-3269, Jul. 2000.
14. J. A. Ruud, D. Josell, F. Spaepen, and A. L. Greer, "A new method for tensile testing of thin films," J. Mater. Res., vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 112-117, 1993. (Pubitemid 23609464)
15. T. Y. Zhang, Y. J. Su, C. F. Qian, M. H. Zhao, and L. Q. Chen, "Microbridge testing of silicon nitride thin films deposited on silicon wafers," Acta Mater., vol. 48, no. 11, pp. 2843-2857, Jun. 2000.
16. W. N. Sharpe, D. Danley, and D. LaVan, Microspecimen Tensile Tests of A533-B Steel, in Small Specimen Test Techniques, S. T. Rosinski, W. R. Corwin, and E. Van Walle, Eds. Philadelphia, PA: ASTM, 1998, pp. 497-512.
17. B. R. Lawn, Fracture of Brittle Solids, 2nd ed. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1993.
18. D. H. Alsem, E. A. Stach, M. T. Dugger, M. Enachescu, and R. O. Ritchie, "An electron microscopy study of wear in polysilicon microelectromechanical systems in ambient air," Thin Solid Films, vol. 515, no. 6, pp. 3259-3266, Feb. 2007. (Pubitemid 46123410)
19. P. T. Jones, G. C. Johnson, and R. T. Howe, "Micromechanical structures for fracture testing of brittle films," Proc. ASME, vol. 59, pp. 325-330, 1996. (Pubitemid 126629473)
20. H. Kahn, R. Ballarini, R. L. Mullen, and A. H. Heuer, "Electrostatically actuated failure of microfabricated polysilicon fracture mechanics specimens," Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A, vol. 455, no. 1990, p. 3807, 1999.
21. C. L. Muhlstein, S. B. Brown, and R. O. Ritchie, "High-cycle fatigue and durability of polycrystalline silicon thin films in ambient air," Sens. Actuators A, Phys., vol. 94, no. 3, pp. 177-188, Nov. 2001. (Pubitemid 33046984)
22. C. J. Wilson and P. A. Beck, "Fracture testing of bulk silicon microcantilever beams subjected to a side load," J. Microelectromech. Syst., vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 142-150, Sep. 1996. (Pubitemid 126607082)
23. B. L. Boyce, J. M. Grazier, T. E. Buchheit, and M. J. Shaw, "Strength distributions in polycrystalline silicon MEMS," J. Microelectromech. Syst., vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 179-190, Apr. 2007. (Pubitemid 46564195)
24. I. Chasiotis and W. G. Knauss, "A new microtensile tester for the study of MEMS materials with the aid of atomic force microscopy," Exp. Mech., vol. 42, no. 1, pp. 51-57, Mar. 2002. (Pubitemid 34414384)
25. S. Greek, F. Ericson, S. Johansson, M. Furtsch, and A. Rump, "Mechanical characterization of thick polysilicon films: Young's modulus and fracture strength evaluated with microstructures," J. Micromech. Microeng., vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 245-251, Sep. 1999. (Pubitemid 129655785)
26. W. N. Sharpe, B. Yuan, and R. L. Edwards, "A new technique for measuring the mechanical properties of thin-films," J. Microelectromech. Syst., vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 193-199, 1997.
27. T. Tsuchiya, O. Tabata, J. Sakata, and Y. Taga, "Specimen size effect of tensile strength of surface-micromachined polycrystalline silicon thin films," J. Micromech. Microeng., vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 106-113, Mar. 1998. (Pubitemid 128604770)
28. B. L. Boyce, "A sequential tensile method for rapid characterization of extreme-value behavior in microfabricated materials," Exp. Mech., vol. 50, no. 7, pp. 993-997, Sep. 2010.
29. E. R. Fuller, D. L. Henann, and L. Ma, "Theta-like specimens for measuring mechanical properties at the small-scale: Effect of non-ideal loading," Int. J. Mater. Res., vol. 98, no. 8, pp. 729-734, 2007. (Pubitemid 47403785)
30. M. A. Haque and M. T. A. Saif, "In-situ tensile testing of nano-scale specimens in SEM and TEM," Exp. Mech., vol. 42, no. 1, pp. 123-128, Mar. 2002. (Pubitemid 34412427)
31. D.-J. Kang, J.-H. Park, M.-S. Shin, J. E. Ha, and H.-J. Lee, "Specimen alignment in an axial tensile test of thin films using direct imaging and its influence on the mechanical properties of BeCu," J. Micromech. Microeng., vol. 20, no. 8, p. 085001, Aug. 2010.
32. M. Biebl and H. von Philipsborn, "Fracture strength of doped and undoped polysilicon," in Proc. Int. Conf. Solid-State Sens., Actuators-Transducers, 1995, pp. 72-75.
33. S. Gravier, M. Coulombier, A. Safi, N. Andre, A. Bo, J.-P. Raskin, and T. Pardoen, "New on-chip nanomechanical testing laboratory-Applications to aluminum and polysilicon thin films," J. Microelectromech. Syst., vol. 18, no. 3, pp. 555-569, Jun. 2009.
34. M. A. Haque and M. T. A. Saif, "Microscale materials testing using MEMS actuators," J. Microelectromech. Syst., vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 146-152, Mar. 2001. (Pubitemid 32287848)
35. Y. Zhu, A. Corigliano, and H. D. Espinosa, "A thermal actuator for nanoscale in situ microscopy testing: Design and characterization," J. Micromech. Microeng., vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 242-253, Feb. 2006. (Pubitemid 43146229)
36. S. S. Hazra, M. S. Baker, J. L. Beuth, and M. P. de Boer, "Demonstration of an in-situ on-chip tensile tester," J. Micromech. Microeng., vol. 19, no. 8, pp. 082 001-082 005, Aug. 2009.
37. B. D. Jensen, M. P. de Boer, N. D. Masters, F. Bitsie, and D. A. LaVan, "Interferometry of actuated cantilevers to determine material properties and test structure non-idealities in MEMS," J. Microelectromech. Syst., vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 336-346, Sep. 2001. (Pubitemid 32988351)
38. C. D. Lott, T. W. McLain, J. N. Harb, and L. L. Howell, "Modeling the thermal behavior of a surface-micromachined linear-displacement thermomechanical microactuator," Sens. Actuators A, Phys., vol. 101, no. 1/2, pp. 239-250, Sep. 2002.
39. J. T. Butler, V. M. Bright, and W. D. Cowan, "Average power control and positioning of polysilicon thermal actuators," Sens. Actuators A, Phys., vol. 72, no. 1, pp. 88-97, Jan. 1999.
40. Q. A. Huang and N. K. S. Lee, "Analysis and design of polysilicon thermal flexure actuator," J. Micromech. Microeng., vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 64-70, Mar. 1999.
41. J. J. Sniegowski and M. P. de Boer, "IC-compatible polysilicon surface micromachining," Annu. Rev. Mater. Sci., vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 299-333, Aug. 2000.
42. M. P. de Boer, A. D. Corwin, P. G. Kotula, G. Subhash, and M. J. Shaw, "On-chip laboratory kit for freestanding metal film mechanical property testing, Part II-Experiments," Acta Mater., vol. 56, no. 14, pp. 3313-3326, 2008.
43. M. P. de Boer, F. W. Delrio, and M. S. Baker, "On-chip laboratory kit for freestanding metal film mechanical property testing, Part I-Analysis," Acta Mater., vol. 56, no. 14, pp. 3344-3352, 2008.
44. M. B. Sinclair,M. P. de Boer, and A. D. Corwin, "Long working-distance, incoherent light interference microscope," Appl. Opt., vol. 44, no. 36, pp. 7714-7721, Dec. 2005.
45. J.-H. Jeong, S.-H. Chung, S.-H. Lee, and D. Kwon, "Evaluation of elastic properties and temperature in Si thin films using an electrostatic microresonator," J. Microelectromech. Syst., vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 524-530, Aug. 2003.
46. H. Metzger and F. R. Kessler, "Der Debye-Sears effekt zur Bestimmung der elastischen Konstanten von Silicium," Z. Nat.forsch A, vol. 25, pp. 904-908, 1970.
47. W. N. Sharpe, J. Bagdahn, K. Jackson, and G. Coles, "Tensile testing of MEMS materials-recent progress," J. Mater. Sci., vol. 38, no. 20, pp. 4075-4079, Oct. 2003.
48. D. Hull, Fractography: Observing, Measuring and Interpreting Fracture Surface Topography. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2000, pp. 121-155.
49. Standard Practice for Reporting Uniaxial Strength Data and Estimating Weibull Distribution Parameters for Advanced Ceramics, American Society for Testing and Materials,West Conshohocken, PA, ASTM C 1239-95, 1995.
50. M. G. Hankins, P. J. Resnick, P. J. Clews, T. M. Mayer, D. R. Wheeler, D. M. Tanner, and R. A. Plass, "Vapor deposition of amino-functionalized self-assembled monolayers on MEMS," in Proc. SPIE, San Francisco, CA, 2003, vol. 4980, pp. 238-247.
51. T. Alan, A. T. Zehnder, D. Sengupta, and M. A. Hines, "Methyl monolayers improve the fracture strength and durability of silicon nanobeams," Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 89, no. 23, p. 231 905, Dec. 2006.
52. M. S. Baker, R. A. Plass, T. J. Headley, and J. A. Walraven, "Compliant thermo-mechanical MEMS actuators," Sandia Nat. Lab., Albuquerque, NM, Tech. Rep., SAND2004-6635, 2004.
53. R. L. Mullen, R. Ballarini, Y. Yin, and A. H. Heuer, "Monte Carlo simulation of effective elastic constants of polycrystalline thin films," Acta Mater., vol. 45, no. 6, pp. 2247-2255, Jun. 1997. (Pubitemid 127413865)