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High-Cycle Fatigue of Polycrystalline Silicon Thin Films in Laboratory Air

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2011

C. L. Muhlstein ,
S.B. Brown  and
R.O. Ritchie
C. L. Muhlstein
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-1760
S.B. Brown
Affiliation:
Exponent, Inc., Natick, MA 01760
R.O. Ritchie
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-1760
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Abstract

When subjected to alternating stresses, most materials degrade, e.g., suffer premature failure, due to a phenomenon known as fatigue. It is generally accepted that in brittle materials, such as ceramics, cyclic fatigue can only take place where there is some degree of toughening, implying that premature fatigue failure would not be expected in polycrystalline silicon where such toughening is absent. However, the fatigue failure of polysilicon is reported in the present work, based on tests on thirteen thin-film (2 μm thick) specimens cycled to failure in laboratory air (∼25°C, 30-50% relative humidity), where damage accumulation and failure of the notched cantilever beams were monitored electrically during the test. Specimen lives ranged from about 10 seconds to 34 days (5 × 105 to 1 × 1011 cycles) with the stress amplitude at failure being reduced to ∼50% of the low-cycle strength for lives in excess of 109 cycles.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 657: Symposia EE – Materials Science of Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) Devices III , 2000 , EE5.8
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2001

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References

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