Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T07:08:51.906Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Investigation upon Mechanical Properties of Thin Film Silicon Under Cryogenic Temperature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Yi Zhao  and
Xin Zhang
Yi Zhao
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Microsystems Technology, Department of Manufacturing Engineering, Boston University, 15 Saint Mary's Street, Boston, MA 02215, USA
Xin Zhang
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Microsystems Technology, Department of Manufacturing Engineering, Boston University, 15 Saint Mary's Street, Boston, MA 02215, USA
Get access

Abstract

Thin film silicon material has an extensive application in cooling satellite instrumentation under cryogenic environment. The performance and reliability of the cooling system heavily depends on mechanical behavior of the thin films. In this paper, we built an experimental setup and used compressive gas to actuate a silicon thin film under both room temperature and cryogenic temperature. The elastic modulus was derived from the film's deflection using laser Michelson interferometer. Stress distribution was obtained using Micro Raman spectroscopy. It was found that Young's modulus derived from the deflection increases with decreasing temperature. Compressive stress concentrated at edge centers of the film and tensile stress occurred at the center. There is a good match between the theoretical predications and experimental observations.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 851: Symposium NN – Materials for Space Applications , 2004 , NN5.6
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

[1] Wachtman, J. B., Tefft, W. E., Lam, D. G., and Apstein, C. S., Exponential temperature dependence of Young's Modulus for several oxides Physics Review 122 1754–1759, 1961.Google Scholar
[2] Varshni, Y. P., Tempera, Temperature dependence of the elastic constants Physics review B 2((10) 3952–3958, 1970.Google Scholar
[3] Read, D. T., Young's modulus of thin films by speckle interferometry Measurement Science Technology 9 676–685, 1998.Google Scholar
[4] De Wolf, I., Maes, H. E. and Jones, S. K., Stress measurements in silicon devices through Raman spectroscopy: bridging the gap between theory and experiment J. Applied Physics (79)9 7148–7156, 1996.Google Scholar
[5] Srikar, V. T., Swan, A. K., Unlu, M. S., Goldberg, B. B. and Spearing, S. M., Micro-Raman measurement of bending stresses in micromachined silicon flexures J. Microelectromechanical System 12((6) 779–787, 2003.Google Scholar
[6] Muhlstein, C. L., Brown, S. B. and Ritchie, R. O., High-cycle fatigue of single crystal silicon thin films J. Microelectromechanical Systems 10((4) 593–600, 2001.Google Scholar
[7] Lawn, B. R., Marshall, D. B. and Chantikul, P., Mechanics of strength-degrading contact flaws in silicon J. Material Science 16 1769–1775, 1981.Google Scholar
[8] Allameh, S. M., Gally, B., Brown, S. B. and Soboyejo, W. O., On the evolution of surface morphology of polysilicon MEMS structures during fatigue Material Research Society Symposium Proceeding 657 EE2.3.1-EE2.3.6, 2000.Google Scholar
[9] Muhlstein, C. L., Stach, E. A. and Ritchie, R. O., Mechanism of fatigue in micron-scale films of polycrystalline silicon for microelectromechanical systems Applied Physics Letters 80((9) 1532–1534, 2002.Google Scholar