Measuring the fracture toughness of ultra-thin films with application to AlTa coatings

Yong XIANG; James MCKINNELL; Wie Ming ANG; Joost J. VLASSAK

doi:10.1007/s10704-007-9095-0

Measuring the fracture toughness of ultra-thin films with application to AlTa coatings

Yong XIANG, James MCKINNELL, Wie Ming ANG, Joost J. VLASSAK^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal Publications › Journal Article (refereed) › peer-review

24 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

An experimental technique is presented for measuring the fracture toughness of brittle thin films. In this technique, long rectangular membranes are fabricated from the film of interest using standard silicon micromachining techniques. A focused ion beam is then used to introduce pre-cracks of different lengths along the centerline of the membranes and the membranes are pressurized until rupture. The fracture stress of the membrane is measured as a function of pre-crack length and the fracture toughness of the film is determined from a simple fracture mechanics analysis. The technique is applicable to a wide range of materials and is especially suited for ultra-thin films. We have demonstrated the experimental procedure for a 150 nm AlTa intermetallic film and obtained a room-temperature fracture toughness of K_1c = 4.44 ± 0.21 MPam^1/2.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	173-179
Number of pages	7
Journal	International Journal of Fracture
Volume	144
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10704-007-9095-0
Publication status	Published - Apr 2007
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

The work presented in this paper was funded by Hewlett-Packard and by the National Science Foundation under grant DMR-0133559.

Keywords

Bulge test
Fracture toughness
Thin films

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10.1007/s10704-007-9095-0

Cite this

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title = "Measuring the fracture toughness of ultra-thin films with application to AlTa coatings",

abstract = "An experimental technique is presented for measuring the fracture toughness of brittle thin films. In this technique, long rectangular membranes are fabricated from the film of interest using standard silicon micromachining techniques. A focused ion beam is then used to introduce pre-cracks of different lengths along the centerline of the membranes and the membranes are pressurized until rupture. The fracture stress of the membrane is measured as a function of pre-crack length and the fracture toughness of the film is determined from a simple fracture mechanics analysis. The technique is applicable to a wide range of materials and is especially suited for ultra-thin films. We have demonstrated the experimental procedure for a 150 nm AlTa intermetallic film and obtained a room-temperature fracture toughness of K1c = 4.44 ± 0.21 MPam1/2.",

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author = "Yong XIANG and James MCKINNELL and ANG, {Wie Ming} and VLASSAK, {Joost J.}",

note = "The work presented in this paper was funded by Hewlett-Packard and by the National Science Foundation under grant DMR-0133559.",

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AU - XIANG, Yong

AU - MCKINNELL, James

AU - ANG, Wie Ming

AU - VLASSAK, Joost J.

N1 - The work presented in this paper was funded by Hewlett-Packard and by the National Science Foundation under grant DMR-0133559.

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N2 - An experimental technique is presented for measuring the fracture toughness of brittle thin films. In this technique, long rectangular membranes are fabricated from the film of interest using standard silicon micromachining techniques. A focused ion beam is then used to introduce pre-cracks of different lengths along the centerline of the membranes and the membranes are pressurized until rupture. The fracture stress of the membrane is measured as a function of pre-crack length and the fracture toughness of the film is determined from a simple fracture mechanics analysis. The technique is applicable to a wide range of materials and is especially suited for ultra-thin films. We have demonstrated the experimental procedure for a 150 nm AlTa intermetallic film and obtained a room-temperature fracture toughness of K1c = 4.44 ± 0.21 MPam1/2.

AB - An experimental technique is presented for measuring the fracture toughness of brittle thin films. In this technique, long rectangular membranes are fabricated from the film of interest using standard silicon micromachining techniques. A focused ion beam is then used to introduce pre-cracks of different lengths along the centerline of the membranes and the membranes are pressurized until rupture. The fracture stress of the membrane is measured as a function of pre-crack length and the fracture toughness of the film is determined from a simple fracture mechanics analysis. The technique is applicable to a wide range of materials and is especially suited for ultra-thin films. We have demonstrated the experimental procedure for a 150 nm AlTa intermetallic film and obtained a room-temperature fracture toughness of K1c = 4.44 ± 0.21 MPam1/2.

KW - Bulge test

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KW - Thin films

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Measuring the fracture toughness of ultra-thin films with application to AlTa coatings

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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