Effects of elastic anisotropy on the surface stability of thin film/substrate system

The surface stability of thin film/substrate system is an important problem both in the film synthesis and reliability of micro electrical and mechanical system (MEMS). In this work, the elastic anisotropy effect on surface stability of thin film/substrate system was considered. The theoretical analysis indicates that elastic anisotropic influence could play an important role in the surface stability of thin film/substrate system. And the anisotropy effect should be considered both in the thin film synthesis process and its service reliability. In addition, there exists an nondimensional parameter k for cubic crystalline thin film materials in evaluating the anisotropic effect. When k is larger than one unit, the surface stability will be weakened by anisotropic effect; vice versa. The method used in present work could be easy extended to multi-layered thin film/substrate system and help us to consider the elastic anisotropy effect. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.