Development and Application of a Multifunctional Nanoindenter: Coupling to Electrical Measurements and Integration In-Situ in a Scanning Electron Microscope

Abstract

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Development of a multifunctional nanoindenter integrated in-situ Scanning Electron Microscope - application to the monitoring of piezoresponse and electro-mechanical failures

“…In standard conditions, the specimen surface was scanned under a 60° tilt angle. SEM-integration allows positioning of indents with a precision better than 100nm [38]. Electrical-nanoindentation experiments can be performed either ex-situ or in-situ SEM.…”

“…Even though this threshold can be lowered by optimizing the observation conditions, it remains an inevitable limitation. However, it is to be noted that the characterization of conductive or leaky systems (metallic alloys [38], strain sensors [78], microelectronic-integrated dielectrics [79][80]...) is not or weakly affected by this issue as long as the relevant signal exceeds this pA level. Finally, the steep current rise at 2700 nm reaches hundreds of µA before smoothly increasing until final loading.…”

“…Beyond the instrumental development, a challenging step of this electro-mechanical coupling remains the quantitative processing of raw data [26,30,34,35]. As already stated, the real-time imaging of nanoindentation tests has been widely reported, but only few attempts have been 5 made to combine electrical measurements and real-time observations in-situ SEM: for the electro-mechanical characterization of graphene in a dedicated device (nanoindenter was then used for mechanical actuation only) [36], for post-mortem observations of indentation imprints [37] or for the local characterization of multi-phased alloys [38].…”

Design and Analysis of a Non-Contact Tension Testing Device Based on Magnetic Levitation

“…The imaging equipment suitable for in-situ observation includes scanning electron microscope (SEM), metalloscope and ultra-depth microscope, etc. Among these, SEM is being used more and more commonly in in-situ testing [4]- [7]. However, when using a SEM, the specimen needs to be placed in the vacuum chamber of the SEM.…”