A novel high-throughput fatigue testing method for metallic thin films

Thin films are used in a wide variety of computing and communication applications although their fatigue behavior and its dependence on alloying elements are not very well known. In this paper, we present an experimental implementation of a novel high-throughput fatigue testing method for metallic thin films. The methodology uses the fact that the surface strain amplitude of a vibrating cantilever decreases linearly from the fixed end to the free end. Therefore, a thin film attached to a vibrating cantilever will experience a gradient of strain and corresponding stress amplitudes along the cantilever. Each cantilever can be used to extract a lifetime diagram by measuring the fatigue-induced damage front that progresses along the cantilever during up to 10(8) load cycles.