The authors describe their design for a paddle-like cantilever beam sample to relieve non-uniform stress distribution in beam-bending tests of the mechanical properties of thin film applications to MEMS. We added the sample to a custom-designed system equipped with an electrostatic panel and optical interferometer. The system overcomes problems associated with using nano-indentation for testing, and reduces errors tied to the amount of contact force required to bend the beam. Accurate paddle cantilever beam deflection was obtained using a four-step phase-shifting process with a Michelson interferometer. Film strain was determined using a simple force equilibrium equation. Residual stresses were measured at -41.3 MPa for 150 nm silver film, -3.2 MPa for 150 nm gold film, and -16.8 MPa for 150 nm copper film. We observed residual stresses for copper films at different thicknesses. The results indicate high tensile stress forms during the early deposition stage for thin copper film due to grain coalescence, and a decrease in stress with an increase in film thickness. In copper films with thicknesses greater than 153 nm, lattice relaxation associated with the surface mobility of metallic atoms changed residual stress from tension to compression
In this study, a micro-force tensile testing machine (MTS Tytron 250) was applied to test the polyimide samples coated with different thicknesses of copper (500–1500 nm). The experiments using different strain rates (1.6 × 10−4 to 1.6 × 10−2 s−1) were conducted to the test vehicles. The results showed that the stress and strain of Cu films were strongly correlated with the strain rate and film thickness. The mechanical strength, yield stress, Young’s modulus, and maximum tensile stress, increase as the strain rate increases or the thickness decreases. Strain rate sensitivity rapidly increases as the thickness decreases from 750 to 500 nm to imply that the workhardening rate increases while the thickness decreases, resulting in a higher probability of brittle failure.
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