Fracture Toughness, Fracture Strength, and Stress Corrosion Cracking of Silicon Dioxide Thin Films

The fracture toughness, fracture strength, and stress corrosion cracking behavior of thin-film amorphous silicon dioxide (SiO 2 ) deposited on silicon wafers via plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition have been measured using specimens with length scales comparable to micromachined devices. Clamp...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of microelectromechanical systems 2008-08, Vol.17 (4), p.943-947
Main Authors: Hatty, V., Kahn, H., Heuer, A.H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amorphous silicon
Applied sciences
Ceramics
Corrosion
Devices
Electronics
Exact sciences and technology
Fracture strength
Fracture toughness
Instruments, apparatus, components and techniques common to several branches of physics and astronomy
Mechanical engineering. Machine design
Mechanical instruments, equipment and techniques
microelectromechanical devices
Microelectronic fabrication (materials and surfaces technology)
Micromachining
Micromechanical devices and systems
Physics
Plasma measurements
Precision engineering, watch making
Residual stress
Residual stresses
Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices
Semiconductor thin films
Silicon compounds
Silicon dioxide
Sputtering
stress
Stress corrosion cracking
Stress measurement
Tensile stress
Thin film devices
Thin films
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Summary:The fracture toughness, fracture strength, and stress corrosion cracking behavior of thin-film amorphous silicon dioxide (SiO 2 ) deposited on silicon wafers via plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition have been measured using specimens with length scales comparable to micromachined devices. Clamped-clamped microtensile specimens were fabricated using standard micromachining techniques. These devices exploit residual tensile stresses in the film to create stress intensity factors at precrack tips and stress concentrations at notches, in order to measure fracture toughness and fracture strength, respectively. The fracture toughness of thin-film SiO 2 was 0.77 plusmn 0.15 MPa ldr m 1/2 , and the fracture strength was 0.81 plusmn 0.06 GPa. Stress corrosion cracking (slow crack growth) was also measured in the SiO 2 devices with sharp precracks subjected to residual tensile stresses. These data are used to predict lifetimes for a SiO 2 -based microdevice.
ISSN:1057-7157
1941-0158
DOI:10.1109/JMEMS.2008.927069