Determination of the fracture strength for ceramic film on substrate by X-ray stress analysis method

A new method is applied to measure the fracture strength of a ceramic film on a substrate by in situ X-ray stress analysis combined with micro-tensile test. As an example, a TiN film was deposited on a steel substrate by multi-arc ion plating (MAIP). During the tensile test, the stresses in the loading and transverse directions of the TiN film were determined by an in situ X-ray stress analysis method, and the applied external strain of the film was measured by a strain gauge. According to the new analytical method described in this paper, the fracture strength of the TiN film can be determined directly, and the value is 7.01 GPa. After comparing the results of another TiN film deposited by plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition (PACVD), which was previously studied by the authors, with those in this study, the influence of deposition technique on the plastic deformation ability of TiN films is also discussed.