Tensile-mode fatigue testing of silicon films as structural materials for MEMS

A new technique for the fatigue testing of thin-films under an approximately uniaxial tensile condition is presented. A perfect grip on both ends of the specimen was achieved by using a silicon device which integrated the specimen and loading system on the same chip. Low-cycle fatigue testing was carried out by controlling the strain applied to the specimen. Test materials were single-crystal-silicon specimens 50 mum long, 50 mum wide, and 5 mum thick with axes aligned in three different orientations. Differences between the number of cycles to failure were observed as differences in the amplitudes of the applied strains. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.