Finite fatigue lifetime of silicon under inert environment

Silicon is susceptible to fatigue even under inert environment, although it has been believed not to be. This paper presents a brand-new image of the fatigue behavior of silicon obtained using the microtensile method. It is estimated that 25% of polysilicon specimens and 34% of single-crystal silicon will break in about 100 years in a nitrogen atmosphere at room temperature, when subjected to a fatigue loading of 100 kHz with a constant stress amplitude amounting to 75% of the scale parameter in the Weibull distribution of their static strength.