Silicon Nitride Thin Films Young's Modulus Determination by an Optical Non Destructive Method

Abstract

The purpose of our study is to determine the Young's modulus of silicon nitride ( Si3N4) thin films. With respect to the experimental material, we use commercially available atomic force microscopy (AFM) microcantilevers. The novelty lies in the procedure used to compare and therefore to validate the experimental results. First, the fundamental mode of Si3N4 thin film microcantilevers is detected by means of the optical beam deflection (OBD) method. The resulting resonant frequency is subsequently introduced into the mechanical theoretical model to extract the value of the Young's modulus. A numerical modal analysis is performed to validate the experimental results using the same approach as that of the experiment. Finally, the Young's modulus obtained in this study is compared with those of other studies. The outcome shows that we have obtained a reliable protocol for Young's modulus estimation.

Microfluidic Large-Scale Integration

“…An abundant peptide (apparent molecular mass of 6.5 kD) was purified from the ammonium fluoride extract (Fig. 1, lane 1) (12). After an additional treatment with anhydrous HF, this peptide exhibited a much higher electrophoretic mobility and comigrated in SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) with silaffin-1A (Fig.…”

“…Introduction of fluid into these devices is accomplished through steel pins inserted into holes punched through the silicone. Unlike micromachined devices made out of hard materials with a high Young's modulus (12), silicone is soft and forms a tight seal around the input pins, readily accepting pressures of up to 300 kPa without leakage. Computer-controlled external solenoid valves allow actuation of multiplexors, which in turn allow complex addressing of a large number of microvalves.…”

Post-buckling dynamic behavior of self-assembled 3D microstructures

“…An Optical Beam Deflection (OBD) method ( Fig. 7) (Buchaillot et al 1997) is used to determine the exact value of natural frequency of the first two modes. OBD is a well-known nondestructive optical method: a laser beam is focused on the sample by means of a microscope objective.…”

Determination of Density and Young's Modulus of Atomic Layer Deposited Thin Films by Resonant Frequency Measurements of Optically Excited Nanocantilevers

“…Resonant method has been widely exploited for determination of elastic constants of materials used in micro- [1][2][3][4] and nano-devices [5] due to high accuracy, non-destructive character and simplicity of resonant experiments suitable for in-situ measurements. While determination of Young's modulus, shear modulus and Poisson's ratio using excitation of a fundamental bending mode [1,2], combination of bending and torsion [3] or higher [4] modes of free-standing [1][2][3] or deposited on a substrate [4] thin films were reported, the mass density of the tested material, which has to be known for the implementation of the resonant method, was measured separately prior to experiment [3] or estimated based on bulk values available in literature [2] (comparative discussion of different experimental techniques for extraction of material properties can be found in [6]) .…”