Novel microstructures for the in situ measurement of mechanical properties of thin films

This paper discusses microfabricated structures designed for the in situ measurement of the mechanical properties of thin films under residual tensile stress. The film is deposited and patterned on a (100) silicon substrate in which 5‐μm‐thick diaphragms have been fabricated. When the silicon diaphragm is etched from the backside in an SF6 plasma, the microstructures are released and deform under the residual tension. Measurement of this deformation in conjunction with appropriate mechanical models determines the mechanical properties of interest. We have used these structures to study benzophenonetetracarboxylicdianhidride‐oxydianiline/metaphenylene‐diamine polyimide films. Typical value for the residual stress to modulus ratio in this case was determined to be 0.011±0.001 while the ultimate strain at break was found to be 4.5% for 5.5‐μm‐thick films. For thicker films (8.5 μm), the film did not fail until 8% strain was reached.