Mechanical properties of MEMS structures

Abstract

Mechanical characterization of MEMS (micro electromechanical systems) materials is increasingly important in view of improving reliability and assessing the life time of new miniaturized devices. In this paper first a number of testing methods are described. These methods include tensile, torsion and fatigue testing of specially designed microstructures. Difficulties arise from manufacturing and handling of small structures and the determination of its geometrical dimensions which directly affect the accuracy of material parameters extracted from the experiments. In addition, the measurement of mechanical parameters like small forces and torques or strains poses a challenge. This paper focuses on size effects in rolled copper foils of thickness between 10 and 250 microns as determined from tensile testing. Tensile testing was chosen as a testing method in order to minimize strain gradients. Depending on the size the copper foils are tested in a classical setup or in a special tensile apparatus which is adapted to the small size of the specimens. The special setup consists of a balance to measure the applied force. The specimens are strained with a lead screw driven translation stage. In order to take care of slip and elasticity in the fixations the strain is measured optically directly on the sample using a least square template matching algorithm. It was found that depending on the thickness of the foils the average fracture strain decreases from about 15% down to .5 % for the 250 and 10 micron specimens, respectively. In order to find a reason for this dramatic change many efforts have been undertaken in order to characterize the specimens more precisely. The microstructure of the samples was determined using various methods including conventional micrographs, hardness measurements and X-ray diffraction.