Novel method to characterize the elastic/plastic deformation response of thin films

摘要

A novel experimental/numerical test method has been developed which allows accurate characterization of the elastic and large-strain plastic mechanical response of thin films. Silicon micromachining techniques have been used to fabricate isolated film features which are mechanically tested using our ultralow-load indentation test system. Macro-scale laboratory testing and finite element analysis were employed to optimize the design of the geometric feature used and to benchmark our analysis capabilities. A simple rigid-plastic geometric analysis of our test structure is developed and applied to the observed force-displacement response, allowing us to extract the uniaxial inelastic stress-strain response of micrometer-scale thin film structures. To our knowledge, this is the first time that the inelastic deformation behavior of metal alloy features of this size scale has been quantitatively determined.