Measurement of Young's modulus of nickel silicide film by a surface profiler

Young's modulus of NiSi film formed on crystal silicon is determined by measuring the deflection of the film as a function of the loaded force on the center of it. In order to reduce the error caused by unknown Poisson's ratio and the boundary of the structure, Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/ film with a Young's modulus of 370 Gpa is used as a reference. The results show that NiSi formed at 350/spl deg/C has a Young's modulus of 132 GPa, which is lower than that that of normal grown polysilicon (/spl sim/160 Gpa) and Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/. It means that the NiSi is a promising structure material for MEMS application.