Numerical analysis of the process-induced stresses in silicon microstructures

Abstract

Residual stresses can significantly affect the performances of silicon micro-structures. The understanding of the residual stress growth during their processing is of great importance. However, the experimental tracing of the stresses at the various stages of the machining is still almost impossible. Quantitative modelling of these problems is the alternative to provide guidelines for the minimization of the residual stresses. In this paper, we describe a technology computer aided design homemade tool, IMPACT. The mechanical models and the numerical implementation are presented. We give details about our methodology to calibrate and validate our implementation. The originality of this study lies in i) the capability to simulate almost all the sources of stress taking into account of the complex rheological behaviours of the materials, ii) the experimental determination of the mechanical properties of various thin film materials and iii) the validation of the calculations by direct comparisons with measured deformations in the micro-structures.