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Tensile Strength and Fracture Toughness of Surface Micromachined Polycrystalline Silicon Thin Films Prepared Under Various Conditions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2011

Toshiyuki Tsuchiya
Affiliation:
Toyota Central Research and Development Laboratories, Inc., Nagakute Aichi 480-11 Japan
Jiro Sakata
Affiliation:
Toyota Central Research and Development Laboratories, Inc., Nagakute Aichi 480-11 Japan
Yasunori Taga
Affiliation:
Toyota Central Research and Development Laboratories, Inc., Nagakute Aichi 480-11 Japan
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Abstract

A new tensile tester for thin films was developed to evaluate the reliability of the microelectro- mechanical devices. This tester uses the grip that fixes a thin film specimen to a probe by electrostatic force. We applied this tester for polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin films prepared under various conditions. The microstructure of the film is controlled by the crystallizing temperature. The process conditions and the microstructures that contribute to the strength of poly-Si film are identified by the tensile strength and the fracture toughness. The mean tensile strength of each specimen size ranges from 1.8 to 3.7 GPa, and the fracture toughness calculated from the strength of the notched specimen ranges from 1.9 to 4.5 MN/m3/2. The 1000°C annealed film has higher strength and toughness than the other films because of the high annealing temperature and the small grain size. The contributions to the strength are evaluated by the additional annealing at 1000°C for the low temperature annealed films.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1998

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References

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