On the interaction between indentationcracks on metallized silicon

摘要

The metallization of Si represents a important industrial process and produces a bilayered composite of a ductile metal film on a brittle substrate. The mechanical properties of such as composite are determined by the properties of the two layers and the interface and influenced by the fact that the metallized layer, being a very thin film, posesses properties different from those of a bulk material. The fracture toughness is alos influenced by the nature and distribution of defects which may be generated during use of these materials, even if the manufacturing process produces a reasonably defect free material. In duentation cracking has been extensivly used for the measurement of fracture toughness due to its samll sample size requirements as well as a relatively good correlation with values obtained from traditional fracture mechanics tests. The indentation process, with its associated cracks,l produces permanent plastic deformation and also introduces a residual stress field. This field influences the crack pattern generated in an adjacent indent and can be used as a methodology to model the influence of multiple defect sources.