Nanoindentation Measurements on Low-k Porous Silica Thin Films Spin Coated on Silicon Substrates

2003 ◽  
Vol 125 (4) ◽  
pp. 361-367 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoqin Huang ◽  
Assimina A. Pelegri

MEMS (MicroElectroMechanical Systems) are composed of thin films and composite nanomaterials. Although the mechanical properties of their constituent materials play an important role in controlling their quality, reliability, and lifetime, they are often found to be different from their bulk counterparts. In this paper, low-k porous silica thin films spin coated on silicon substrates are studied. The roughness of spin-on coated porous silica films is analyzed with in-situ imaging and their mechanical properties are determined using nanoindentation. A Berkovich type nanoindenter, of a 142.3 deg total included angle, is used and continuous measurements of force and displacements are acquired. It is shown, that the measured results of hardness and Young’s modulus of these films depend on penetration depth. Furthermore, the film’s mechanical properties are influenced by the properties of the substrate, and the reproduction of the force versus displacement curves depends on the quality of the thin film. The hardness of the studied low-k spin coated silica thin film is measured as 0.35∼0.41 GPa and the Young’s modulus is determined as 2.74∼2.94 GPa.

2008 ◽  
Vol 600-603 ◽  
pp. 867-870
Author(s):  
Gwiy Sang Chung ◽  
Ki Bong Han

This paper presents the mechanical properties of 3C-SiC thin film according to 0, 7, and 10 % carrier gas (H2) concentrations using Nano-Indentation. When carrier gas (H2) concentration was 10 %, it has been proved that the mechanical properties, Young’s Modulus and Hardness, of 3C-SiC are the best of them. In the case of 10 % carrier gas (H2) concentration, Young’s Modulus and Hardness were obtained as 367 GPa and 36 GPa, respectively. When the surface roughness according to carrier gas (H2) concentrations was investigated by AFM (atomic force microscope), when carrier gas (H2) concentration was 10 %, the roughness of 3C-SiC thin was 9.92 nm, which is also the best of them. Therefore, in order to apply poly 3C-SiC thin films to MEMS applications, carrier gas (H2) concentration’s rate should increase to obtain better mechanical properties and surface roughness.


2007 ◽  
Vol 124-126 ◽  
pp. 1701-1704 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sang Joo Lee ◽  
Seung Woo Han ◽  
Jae Hyun Kim ◽  
Hak Joo Lee

It is quite difficult to accurately measure the mechanical properties of thin films. Currently, there are several methods (or application) available for measuring mechanical properties of thin films. Their properties, however, have been determined by indirect methods such as cantilever beam test and diaphragm bulge test. This paper reports the efforts to develop a direct strain measurement system for micro/nano scale thin film materials. The proposed solution is the Visual Image Tracing (VIT) strain measurement system coupled with a micro tensile testing unit, which consists of a piezoelectric actuator, load cell, microscope and CCD cameras. The advantage of this system is the ability to monitor the real time images of specimen during the test in order to determine its Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio at the same time. Stress-strain curve, Young’s modulus, yield strength and Poisson’s ratio of copper thin film measured using VIT system are presented.


2006 ◽  
Vol 326-328 ◽  
pp. 357-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rwei Ching Chang ◽  
Feng Yuan Chen ◽  
Chang En Sun

This work uses nanoindentation and nanoscratch to measure the mechanical properties of evaporation copper thin films. The thin film is deposited on a silicon wafer substrate by using the physical vapor deposition method provided by a resistive heating evaporator. The mechanical properties are then determined by indentation test and lateral force test produced by nanoindenter and nanoscratch. The results show that, as the copper thin film is 500nm in thickness and the indentation depth increases from 100nm to 400nm, the Young’s modulus increases from 151GPa to 160GPa while the hardness increases from 2.8GPa to 3.5GPa. Moreover, both the Young’s modulus and the hardness decrease as the thickness of the thin film increases. Besides, the nanoscratch results show that the friction factor also increases as the scratch depth increases, and a thinner film thickness makes a larger friction factor. The results represent the substrate has a significant effect on the mechanical properties of the thin films.


2013 ◽  
Vol 684 ◽  
pp. 37-41
Author(s):  
Jen Ching Huang ◽  
Yi Chia Liao ◽  
Huail Siang Liu ◽  
Fu Jen Cheng

This paper studies the deposition process and mechanical properties of Cu thin films deposited on single crystal copper substrates with various surface roughnesses by molecular dynamics (MD). In the effect of vacancy concentration (Cv) of substrate, the Young's modulus of sample decreased as the Cv of substrate increased but the adhesion force will increase as the Cv of substrate increases. The effect of substrate roughness on the peak intensity of crystal orientation has little. And the greater Cv of substrate, the surface roughness of the deposited thin film also increased. In the effect of numbers of deposited atoms, the deposited thin film thickness increases, the surface will be relatively flat and the Young's modulus will also increase. By the XRD pattern, the principal growth directions of thin film are the (220) and (200) in the early stage of growth during deposition. However, with the thickness increasing, the (111) will be the preferred orientation.


2008 ◽  
Vol 33-37 ◽  
pp. 969-974 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bong Bu Jung ◽  
Seong Hyun Ko ◽  
Hun Kee Lee ◽  
Hyun Chul Park

This paper will discuss two different techniques to measure mechanical properties of thin film, bulge test and nano-indentation test. In the bulge test, uniform pressure applies to one side of thin film. Measurement of the membrane deflection as a function of the applied pressure allows one to determine the mechanical properties such as the elastic modulus and the residual stress. Nano-indentation measurements are accomplished by pushing the indenter tip into a sample and then withdrawing it, recording the force required as a function of position. . In this study, modified King’s model can be used to estimate the mechanical properties of the thin film in order to avoid the effect of substrates. Both techniques can be used to determine Young’s modulus or Poisson’s ratio, but in both cases knowledge of the other variables is needed. However, the mathematical relationship between the modulus and Poisson's ratio is different for the two experimental techniques. Hence, achieving agreement between the techniques means that the modulus and Poisson’s ratio and Young’s modulus of thin films can be determined with no a priori knowledge of either.


2012 ◽  
Vol 455-456 ◽  
pp. 8-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bin Li ◽  
Ping Xie ◽  
Su Ying Zhang ◽  
Ding Quan Liu

A mechanically robust infrared high-index coating material is essential to the infrared interference coatings. Lead germanium telluride (Pb1-xGexTe) is a pseudo-binary alloy of IV-VI narrow gap semiconductors of PbTe and GeTe. In our investigation, the hardness and Young’s modulus of thin films of Pb1-xGexTe, which were deposited on silicon substrates using electron beam evaporation, were identified by means of nanoindentation measurement. It is demonstrated that layers of Pb1-xGexTe have greater hardness and Young’s modulus compared with those of PbTe. These mechanical behaviors of layers can be linked to a ferroelectric phase transition from a cubic paraelectric phase to a rhombohedral, ferroelectric phase. Moreover, the strength loss in the layers of Pb1-xGexTe can be also explained in light of strong localized elastic-strain fields in concentrated solid solutions.


Author(s):  
Enboa Wu ◽  
Albert J. D. Yang ◽  
Ching-An Shao ◽  
C. S. Yen

Nondestructive determination of Young’s modulus, coefficient of thermal expansion, Poisson ratio, and thickness of a thin film has long been a difficult but important issue as the film of micrometer order thick might behave differently from that in the bulk state. In this paper, we have successfully demonstrated the capability of determining all these four parameters at one time. This novel method includes use of the digital phase-shifting reflection moire´ (DPRM) technique to record the slope of wafer warpage under temperature drop condition. In the experiment, 1-um thick aluminum was sputtered on a 6-in silicon wafer. The convolution relationship between the measured data and the mechanical properties was constructed numerically using the conventional 3D finite element code. The genetic algorithm (GA) was adopted as the searching tool for search of the optimal mechanical properties of the film. It was found that the determined data for Young’s modulus (E), Coefficient of Thermal Expansion (CTE), Poisson ratio (ν), and thickness (h) of the 1.00 um thick aluminum film were 104.2Gpa, 38.0 ppm/°C, 0.38, and 0.98 um, respectively, whereas that in the bulk state were measured to be E=71.4 Gpa, CTE=23.0 ppm/°C, and ν=0.34. The significantly larger values on the Young’s modulus and the coefficient of thermal expansion determined by this method might be attributed to the smaller dislocation density due to the thin dimension and formation of the 5-nm layer of Al2O3 formed on top of the 1-um thick sputtered film. The Young’s Modulus and the Poisson ratio of this nano-scale Al2O3 film were then determined. Their values are consistent with the physical intuition of the microstructure.


2019 ◽  
Vol 963 ◽  
pp. 305-308
Author(s):  
Jaweb Ben Messaoud ◽  
Jean François Michaud ◽  
Marcin Zielinski ◽  
Daniel Alquier

The silicon carbide cubic polytype (3C-SiC) is a material of choice to fabricate microelectromechanical systems. However, the mechanical properties of 3C-SiC-based devices are severely linked to the stress of the involved 3C-SiC material. Moreover, the stress level can hamper completing microsystems. As a consequence, in this study, we considered the influence of aluminum (Al) doping towards the mechanical properties of 3C-SiC epilayers and demonstrated a noticeable reduction of the Young’s modulus with a high Al incorporation.


2011 ◽  
Vol 88 (5) ◽  
pp. 666-670 ◽  
Author(s):  
X. Xiao ◽  
X.M. Shan ◽  
Y. Kayaba ◽  
K. Kohmura ◽  
H. Tanaka ◽  
...  

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document