A Nanorobotic System for In Situ Stiffness Measurements on Membranes

In order to characterize the mechanical behavior of fragile resonant microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)/nanoelectromechanical 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.