A Nanorobotic System for In Situ Stiffness Measurements on Membranes

摘要

In order to characterize the mechanical behavior of fragile resonant microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)anoelectromechanical systems (NEMS), nondestructive measurements are required. In this paper, a cartography of local stiffness variations on a suspended micromembrane is established for the first time, by a tuning-fork-based dynamic force sensor inside a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Experiments are conducted individually on a batch of InP membranes 200 nm thin, using a 9-degree-of-freedom (dof) nanomanipulation system, complemented with virtual reality and automation tools. Results provide stiffness values in the range of a few newton per meter, with variations in a single sample depending on the membrane models.