Abstract

MUNGUIA-CERVANTES, J.E. et al. Si₃N₄ Young's modulus measurement from microcantilever beams using a calibrated stylus profiler. Superf. vacío [online]. 2017, vol.30, n.1, pp.10-13.  Epub Oct 13, 2020. ISSN 1665-3521.

Stylus surface profiler has been widely used in order to measure Young's modulus of silicon nitride (Si3N4) from microcantilever beams. Until now, several Si3N4 Young's modulus values have been reported. It may be due to incomplete assessment of the microcantilever beams bending over its entire length or a lack of calibration of the stylus force system used in those works. We presented in this work an alternative method to measure the elastic modulus of MEMS thin layers in a rather accurate manner. A stylus force calibration is reported from a calibrated silicon microcantilever beam in order to measure the Si3N4 Young's modulus. We reported Si3N4 Young's modulus from three microcantilever beams, with values of 219.4 ± 0.6 GPa, 230.1 ± 3.4 GPa and 222 ± 11 GPa for 50 μιη, 100 μm and 200 μm wide respectively, which are in good agreement with respect to the Si3N4 Young's modulus which have been determined by other methods.

Keywords : Microcantilever; Si3N4; Young´s Modulus; mechanical stylus profiler.