Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 February 2011
Fatigue fracture under cyclic loading of single crystal silicon (SCS) is concerned and fatigue properties and mechanism are investigated widely. Surface oxide is considered to have an important role on fatigue fractures. In this paper, the tensile testing of SCS whose surface was intentionally oxidized and the effect of the oxide thickness on the mechanical properties were reported. After fabrication of SCS specimens, they were oxidized in dry oxidization at 1100 ºC. Quasi-static tensile testing of SCS specimens with no, 100-nm-oxide, and 200-nm-oxide thick oxide was performed. As the results, the deviation in fracture strain was decreased by oxidation, and the fracture origin was observed to be the inner silicon part. These results might be caused by the decrease of surface roughness and defects formation by oxygen precipitation during thermal oxidation.