Title: Nanomechanical characterisation of MEMS thin film materials

Authors: J.H. He, J.K. Luo, M.A. Hopcroft, H.R. Le, D.F. Moore

Addresses: Institute of Microelectronics, 11 Science Park Road, Science Park II, Singapore 117685. ' Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1PZ, UK. ' Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1PZ, UK. ' Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1PZ, UK. ' Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1PZ, UK

Abstract: Mechanical characterisation of thin film is crucial for development of MEMS/NEMS devices. A simple mechanical characterisation method is developed using a surface profilometer. Surface profilometer is used to scan along the micromachined cantilevers and produce the bending profile, from which the Young|s modulus can be extracted. The following MEMS materials: SiN, Ni, Ni/SiN bimorph, Nanocrystal Diamond (ND), SiC have been characterised. The results are compared and in agreement with those obtained from nanoindentation and resonance frequency method. The advantages and disadvantages of these three methods are discussed.

Keywords: cantilevers; MEMS thin films; NEMS; elastic modulus; mechanical characterisation; nanoindentation; resonance frequency; microelectromechanical systems; nanoelectromechanical systems; bending profile.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCMSSE.2009.027491

International Journal of Computational Materials Science and Surface Engineering, 2009 Vol.2 No.3/4, pp.342 - 354

Published online: 28 Jul 2009 *

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