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On the Mechanism of Fatigue in Micron-Scale Structural Films of Polycrystalline Silicon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

C. L. Muhlstein ,
E. A. Stach  and
R. O. Ritchie
C. L. Muhlstein
Affiliation:
Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
E. A. Stach
Affiliation:
National Center for Electron Microscopy, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720
R. O. Ritchie
Affiliation:
Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
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Abstract

2-νm thick structural films of polycrystalline silicon are shown to display “metal-like” stress- life fatigue behavior in room air, with failures occurring after >1011 cycles at stresses as low as half the fracture strength. Using in situ measurements of the specimen compliance and transmission electron microscopy to characterize such damage, the mechanism of thin-film silicon fatigue is deduced to be sequential oxidation and moisture-assisted cracking in the native SiO2 layer. This mechanism can also occur in bulk silicon but it is only relevant in thin films where the critical crack size for catastrophic failure can be exceeded within the oxide layer. The fatigue susceptibility of thin-film silicon is shown to be suppressed by alkene-based self- assembled monolayer coatings that prevent the formation of the native oxide.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 687: Symposium B – Materials Science of Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) Devices IV , 2001 , B10.7/P6.7
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2002

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