A novel method for in situ thermal expansion coefficient measurement of polysilicon thin films [MEMS materials applications]

This paper presents a novel structure for in situ determination of thermal expansion coefficient (TEC) of polysilicon thin films. Using this structure, all experiments are available in the air without any special requirements for vacuum or sealed chambers. Besides, a paramount novelty for this method is that all readouts are presented in electrical forms, compared with conventional ones obtained by optical observations. In the paper, a thermal-electro-mechanical compliant model is provided and verified with ANSYS software. Moreover, some optimized parameters are achieved through simulations, as well.