Young's modulus measurement of thin-film materials using micro-cantilevers

The need for a simple and effective characterization technique for thin-film materials which are widely used in MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical systems), using commonly available equipment, has prompted consideration of cantilever beam-based methods. The advantages of this class of techniques which employ a scanning surface profiler to deform micro-cantilevers are simplicity, speed, cost and wide applicability. A technique for extracting Young's modulus from static deflection data is developed in this paper and validated in experiments on thin-film specimens of silicon nitride deposited on a silicon substrate under different conditions. Finite element analysis is used to assess the influence of factors affecting the bending of thin films, and thus guide the analysis of micro-cantilever deflection data for reliable characterization of the material.