Development of testing system for evaluating the mechanical properties of thin microelement

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In order to develop a reliable micro machine and MEMS in a service operation, much care must be taken into micro mechanical evaluation, i.e., mechanical properties of μm-sized microelements including fatigue behavior. However, the evaluation method has not been well established yet. In this study, the testing system of a thin microelement has been developed to evaluate the mechanical properties; the tensile strength, elastic modulus, fatigue strength and so on, and the evaluation methods for thin microelement are established. The system consists of a micromechanical tensile testing machine actuated by a PZT driven positioning stage, a micro manipulation system, a non-contact strain measurement system with a help of a double field of view microscope. The system is basically designed for poly-Si thin microelement with 3.5μm thick and 10μm wide. When conducting the uni-axial tensile test, the most important and difficult thing is to establish the method of gripping the specimen. In this study, a gripping method with glue is developed and successfully applied to the uni-axial tensile test without any slipping at the grip. Moreover the testing system is installed on an AFM stage and in situ observation of specimen surface is successfully done. The testing machine and a control program are improved to conduct the fatigue tests of thin microelement not only in laboratory air but also in water.