Tensile testing of thin-film materials on a silicon chip

We describe a uniaxial tensile testing method which is performed on a single-crystal silicon chip, in order to evaluate the mechanical properties of thin films such as silicon and silicon compounds that have been formed on the chip. This method eliminates troublesome manipulation of small, fragile specimens as in previous tensile testing methods. The chip has been designed so that uniaxial tensile force is applied to a thin-film specimen when the lever structure on the same chip is loaded perpendicular to the chip surface. We developed a process to fabricate the chip using chemical anisotropic etching. We also developed a load and displacement measuring system and were able to measure fracture strain from 1%-1.8% for ⟨110⟩ single crystal silicon using this system