Non-uniform, axisymmetric misfit strain： in thin films bonded on plate substrates/substrate systems： the relation between non-uniform film stresses and system curvatures

Current methodologies used for the inference of thin film stress through curvature measurements are strictly restricted to stress and curvature states which are assumed to remain uniform over the entire film/substrate system. By considering a circular thin film/substrate system subject to non-uniform, but axisymmetric misfit strain distributions in the thin film, we derived relations between the film stresses and the misfit strain, and between the plate system’s curvatures and the misfit strain. These relations feature a ‘‘local’’ part which involves a direct dependence of the stress or curvature components on the misfit strain at the same point, and a ‘‘non-local’’ part which reflects the effect of misfit strain of other points on the location of scrutiny. Most notably, we also derived relations between the polar components of the film stress and those of system curvatures which allow for the experimental inference of such stresses from full-field curvature measurements in the presence of arbitrary radial non-uniformities. These relations also feature a ‘‘non-local’’ dependence on curvatures making a full-field measurement a necessity. Finally, it is shown that the interfacial shear tractions between the film and the substrate are proportional to the radial gradients of the first curvature invariant and can also be inferred experimentally.     

Thin film/substrate systems featuring arbitrary film thickness and misfit strain distributions. Part I: Analysis for obtaining film stress from non-local curvature information

Current methodologies used for the inference of thin film stress through curvature measurements are strictly restricted to stress and curvature states which are assumed to remain uniform over the entire film/substrate system. Recently Huang, Rosakis and co-workers [Huang, Y., Ngo, D., Rosakis, A.J., 2005. Non-uniform, axisymmetric misfit strain: in thin films bonded on plate substrates/substrate systems: the relation between non-uniform film stresses and system curvatures. Acta Mech. Sin. 21, 362–370; Huang, Y., Rosakis A.J., 2005. Extension of Stoney’s Formula to non-uniform temperature distributions in thin film/substrate systems. The case of radial symmetry. J. Mech. Phys. Solids 53, 2483–2500; Ngo, D., Huang, Y., Rosakis, A. J., Feng, X. 2006. Spatially non-uniform, isotropic misfit strain in thin films bonded on plate substrates: the relation between non-uniform film stresses and system curvatures. Thin Solid Films (in press)] established methods for film/substrate system subject to non-uniform misfit strain and temperature changes. The film stresses were found to depend non-locally on system curvatures (i.e., depend on the full-field curvatures). The existing methods, however, all assume uniform film thickness which is often violated in the thin film/substrate system. We extend these methods to arbitrarily non-uniform film thickness for the thin film/substrate system subject to non-uniform misfit strain. Remarkably the stress-curvature relation for uniform film thickness still holds if the film thickness is replaced by its local value at the point where the stress is evaluated. This result has been experimentally validated in Part II of this paper.     

Multi-layer thin films/substrate system subjected to non-uniform misfit strains

Current methodologies used for the inference of thin film stress through curvature measurement are strictly restricted to stress and curvature states that are assumed to remain uniform over the entire film/substrate system. These methodologies have recently been extended to a single layer of thin film deposited on a substrate subjected to the non-uniform misfit strain in the thin film. Such methodologies are further extended to multi-layer thin films deposited on a substrate in the present study. Each thin film may have its own non-uniform misfit strain. We derive relations between the stresses in each thin film and the change of system curvatures due to the deposition of each thin film. The interface shear stresses between the adjacent films and between the thin film and the substrate are also obtained from the system curvatures. This provides the basis for the experimental determination of thin film stresses in multi-layer thin films on a substrate.     

Thin film/substrate systems featuring arbitrary film thickness and misfit strain distributions. Part II: Experimental validation of the non-local stress/curvature relations

The classical Stoney formula relating local equibiaxial film stress to local equibiaxial substrate curvature is not well equipped to handle realistic cases where the film misfit strain, the plate system curvature, and the film thickness and resulting film stress vary with in-plane position. In Part I of this work we have extended the Stoney formula to cover arbitrarily non-uniform film thickness for a thin film/substrate system subject to non-uniform, isotropic misfit strains. The film stresses are found to depend non-locally on system curvatures. In Part II we have designed a demanding experiment whose purpose is to validate the new analysis for the case of radially symmetric deformations. To achieve this, a circular film island with sharp edges and a radially variable, but known, thickness is deposited on the wafer center. The plate system’s curvatures and the film stress distribution are independently measured by using white beam and monochromatic X-ray microdiffraction (μXRD) measurements, respectively. The measured stress field (from monochromatic μXRD) is compared to the predictions of various stress/curvature analyses, all of which have the white beam μXRD measurements as input. The results reveal the shortcomings of the “local” Stoney approach and validate the accuracy of the new “non-local” relation, most notably near the film island edges where stress concentrations dominate.     

Effect of intrinsic stress gradient on the effective mode-I fracture toughness of amorphous diamond-like carbon films for MEMS

The influence of intrinsic stress gradient on the mode-I fracture of thin films with various thicknesses fabricated for Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) was investigated. The material system employed in this study was hydrogen-free tetrahedral amorphous diamond-like carbon (ta-C). Uniform gauge microscale specimens with thicknesses 0.5, 1, 2.2, and 3 μm, containing mathematically sharp edge pre-cracks were tested under mode-I loading in fixed grip configuration. The effective opening mode fracture toughness, as calculated from boundary force measurements, was 4.25±0.7 MPa√m for 0.5-μm thick specimens, 4.4±0.4 MPa√m for 1-μm specimens, 3.74±0.3 MPa√m for 2.2-μm specimens, and 3.06±0.17 MPa√m for 3-μm specimens. Thus, the apparent fracture toughness decreased with increasing film thickness. Local elastic property measurements showed no substantial change as a function of film thickness, which provided evidence for the stability of the sp²/sp³ carbon binding stoichiometry in films of different thicknesses. Detailed experiments and finite element analysis pointed out that the dependence of the effective fracture toughness on specimen thickness was due to the intrinsic stress gradient developed during fabrication and post-process annealing. This stress gradient is usually unaccounted for in mode-I fracture experiments with thin films. Thicker films, fabricated from multiple thin layers, underwent annealing for extended times, which resulted in a stress gradient across their thickness. This stress gradient caused an out-of-plane curvature upon film release from its substrate and, thus, combined bending and tensile mode-I loading at the crack tip under in-plane forces. Since the bending component cannot be isolated from the applied boundary force measurements, its contribution, becoming important for thick films, remains unaccounted for in the calculation of the critical stress intensity factor, thus resulting in reduced apparent fracture toughness that varies with film thickness and curvature. It was concluded that in the presence of a stress gradient, accounting only for the average intrinsic stresses could lead in an overestimate of the fracture resistance of a brittle film. Under these considerations the material fracture toughness of ta-C, as determined from specimens with negligible curvature, is K_IC=4.4±0.4 MPa√m.     

Patterned bilayer plate microstructures subjected to thermal loading: Deformation and stresses

We studied the deformation of a series of gold/polysilicon patterned plate microstructures fabricated by surface micromachining. The patterned plate microstructures were subjected to a uniform temperature change from 100 °C to room temperature that was intended to induce linear and geometrically nonlinear deformation. We used interferometry to measure full-field deformed shapes of the microstructures. From these measurements we determined the spatially-averaged curvature of the deformed microstructures within individual lines and across the entire plate. The deformation response of the patterned plates can be broadly characterized in terms of the average curvature as a function of temperature change and exhibits linear and geometrically nonlinear behavior. We modeled the deformation response of the patterned plates using geometrically nonlinear plate theory with the finite element method. Good agreement was obtained between predictions and measurements for both local curvature variations across lines and for the evolution of curvature of the entire plate with temperature change. Using a generalized plane strain approach with the finite element method we also modeled the spatial dependence of the stress distribution in the lines and substrate. For thick plates, our results agree with those of previous studies, showing a decrease in the von Mises stress in the metal lines with decreasing linewidth. For thinner substrates, though, we find the behavior with linewidth is opposite and there is a critical substrate thickness (about 10 μm for the system in our study) where the behavior with linewidth changes. These results have important implications in the design of patterned structures for micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) applications where films are of comparable thickness to the underlying substrate.     

Thermo-mechanical solution of film/substrate systems under local thermal load and application to laser lift-off of GaN/sapphire structures

Film/substrate structures may undergo a localized thermal load, which can induce stresses, deformation and defects. In this paper, we present the solutions of temperature and stresses in a film/substrate structure under a local thermal load on the film surface. Then, the generalized Stoney formula, which connects the curvature of deformation and the stress field is obtained. The present solution takes into account the non-uniformity of the temperature field both in the width and thickness directions of the film. The thermo-mechanical solution is applied to the analysis of the temperature distribution, stresses, and damage of a GaN/sapphire system during the laser lift-off (LLO) process. It is shown that the laser with the Gaussian distribution of energy density causes much smaller tensile stresses at the edge of the heated area in the film than the laser with the uniform distribution of energy density, and thus can avoid damage to the GaN films separated from the substrate.     

Spherical inflation of a class of compressible elastic bodies

Using a special model that belongs to a new class of elastic bodies wherein the Cauchy-Green stretch is given in terms of the Cauchy stress and its invariants, within the context of the spherical inflation of a spherical annulus, we show that interesting phenomena like the development of “stress boundary layers” manifest themselves. We consider two cases of boundary value problems, one in which there is a cavity in a sphere and the other in which there is a rigid spherical inclusion in a sphere. We show that in the case of a rigid inclusion, it is possible for a pronounced “stress boundary” layer to develop, in that the values of the stresses within this boundary layer that is adjacent to a spherical inclusion are much larger than external to it. We also show that in the case of both the cavity and a rigid inclusion, the stress concentration is an order of magnitude higher than the increase in the deformation gradient, that is, the stress and the stretch do not scale in a similar manner. While the stress adjacent to a rigid inclusion can be 2500 times the applied radial stress, the maximum stretch, which occurs at the rigid inclusion is about 10. While the variation in the stresses are linear in thin walled annular regions, we find that in thick walled annular regions, the variation of the stresses is non-linear.     

Relations Between Statistics of Three-Dimensional Flame Curvature and its Two-Dimensional Counterpart in Turbulent Premixed Flames

The relations between the actual flame curvature probability density function (PDF) evaluated in three-dimensions and its two-dimensional counterpart based on planar measurements have been analytically derived subject to the assumptions of isotropy and statistical independence of various angles and two-dimensional curvature. These relations have been assessed based on Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) databases of turbulent premixed (a) statistically planar and (b) statistically axisymmetric Bunsen flames. It has been found that the analytically derived relation interlinking the PDFs of actual three-dimensional curvature and its two-dimensional counterpart holds reasonably well for a range of curvatures around the mean value defined by the inverse of the thermal flame thickness for different turbulence intensities across different combustion regimes. The flame surface is shown to exhibit predominantly two-dimensional cylindrical curvature but there is a significant probability of finding saddle type flame topologies and this probability increases with increasing turbulence intensity. The presence of saddle type flame topologies affects the ratios of second and third moments of two-dimensional and three-dimensional curvatures. It has been demonstrated that the ratios of second and third moments of two-dimensional and three-dimensional curvatures cannot be accurately predicted based on two-dimensional measurements. The ratio of the third moments of two-dimensional and three-dimensional curvatures remains positive and thus the qualitative nature of curvature skewness can still be obtained based on two-dimensional curvature measurements. As the curvature skewness is often taken to be a marker of the Darrius-Landau instability, the conclusion regarding the presence of this instability can potentially be taken from the two-dimensional curvature measurements.

     

A parametric study of laser induced thin film spallation

We report parametric studies of elastic wave generation by a pulsed laser and associated spalling of thin surface films by the corresponding high stresses. Two different substrate materials, single crystal Si (100) and fused silica, are considered. Spallation behavior of Al thin films is investigated as a function of substrate thickness, film thickness, laser energy, and various parameters governing the source. Surface displacement due to the stress wave is measured by Michaelson interferometry and used to infer the stresses on the film interface. Consistent with previous studies, the maximum stress in the substrate and at the film/substrate interface increases with increasing laser fluence. For many of the conditions tested, the substrate stress is large enough to damage the Si. Moreover, the maximum interface stress is found to increase with increasing film thickness, but decrease with increasing substrate thickness due to geometric attenuation. Of particular significance is the development of a decompression shock in the fused sillica substrates, which results in very high tensile stresses at the interface. This shock enhances the failure of thin film interfaces, especially in thicker samples.     

纳米压痕法测磁控溅射铝薄膜屈服应力

为了在考虑残余应力下测量出磁控溅射铝薄膜的屈服应力,提出了一种实验测量方法,通过曲率测试法和球形压头纳米压痕法测出磁控溅射铝薄膜的屈服应力．建立球形压痕力学模型,并用ANSYS对球形压痕进行力学有限元仿真,利用直流磁控溅射技术在硅基上淀积一层1 μm厚的铝薄膜,首先通过曲率测试法测量膜内等双轴残余应力,再利用最小二乘曲线拟合法从薄膜/基底系统的球形压头纳米压痕实验数据中提取出铝薄膜的屈服应力,测得磁控溅射铝薄膜的屈服应力为371 MPa．该方法也可以用来研究其他材料的薄膜和小体积材料的力学特性．     

Pure-shear Failure of Thin Films by Laser-induced Shear Waves

The measurement of mode-dependent thin film interfacial properties is important in evaluating the quality of the interfaces between thin films and substrates. Previous work has proved that tensile and mixed-mode strength of a thin film/substrate interface can be evaluated using a laser-induced thin film spallation technique. To further examine the application regime of this technique and identify the individual roles of the tensile and shear stress in the resulting interfacial failure, a special sample design is adopted in the current work to realize pure-shear loading at the thin film/substrate interface. Our result demonstrates that for sufficiently high stress amplitude, interfacial failure can be induced solely by the in-plane shear stress and the stress can be quantitatively determined from optical interferometric measurements. Together with the previous tensile and mixed-mode studies, a complete picture of the mode-dependent thin film interfacial strength can now be reliably determined using the laser-induced thin film spallation techniques.     

Measurements of Deflection and Residual Stress in Thin Films Utilizing Coherent Light Reflection/Projection Moiré Interferometry

Thin film technology is an area of great importance in current applications of opto-electronics, electronics, MEMS and computer technology. A critical issue in thin film technology is residual stresses that arise when the coating is deposited onto a substrate. Residual stresses can be very large in magnitude and have detrimental effects on the role that the thin film must play. To save development time on coating deposition processes it is important to perform accurate residual stresses measurements in situ in real time where the deposition is made. A novel optical set up is developed in this study to measure deflections and residual stresses generated in coated specimens that can be applied directly in the reactor utilized in the deposition process. Experimental results are in good agreement with other measurements carried out independently and other data reported in literature for thin films like those tested in the experiments.     

Mixed-mode interfacial adhesive strength of a thin film on an anisotropic substrate

The mixed-mode interfacial adhesion strength between a gold (Au) thin film and an anisotropic passivated silicon (Si) substrate is measured using laser-induced stress wave loading. Test specimens are prepared by bonding a fused silica (FS) prism to the back side of a 〈1 0 0〉 Si substrate with a thin silicon nitride (Si_xN_y) passivation layer deposited on the top surface. A high-amplitude stress wave is developed by pulsed laser ablation of a sacrificial absorbing layer on one of the lateral surfaces of the FS prism. Due to the negative non-linear elastic properties of the FS, the compressive stress wave evolves into a decompression shock with fast fall time. Careful selection of the incident angle between the pulse and the FS/Si interface generates a mode-converted shear wave in refraction, subjecting the Si_xN_y/Au thin film interface to dynamic mixed-mode loading, sufficient to cause interfacial fracture. A detailed analysis of the anisotropic wave propagation combined with interferometric measurements of surface displacements enables calculation of the interfacial stresses developed under mixed-mode loading. The mixed-mode interfacial strength is compared to the interfacial strength measured under purely tensile loading.     

Atomistic simulation of stress evolution during island growth

We report the results of a series of hybrid molecular dynamics simulations of the growth of islands on a substrate for several different island/substrate interface energies. When the interface energy is small, the islands tend to be thin and broad and the magnitude of the compressive stress-thickness product is relatively large. As the interface energy increases, the islands become taller and thinner and the magnitude of the compressive stress-thickness product decreases. This trend is consistent with experimental observations. The island aspect ratio dependence on interface energy follows from consideration of the equilibrium wetting angle. The effect of interface energy on the stress-thickness product shows that the island shape, surface/interface stresses and island stresses are self-equilibrated. A simple theory is developed that shows that the stress-thickness product is simply proportional to the substrate coverage and the substrate surface stress. The present simulations yield a simple, accurate, validated theory for stress development during the pre-coalescence stage of film growth.     

Phase Shifting Full-Field Interferometric Methods for Determination of In-Plane Tensorial Stress

A new method that combines phase shifting photoelasticity and transmission Coherent Gradient Sensing (CGS) is developed to determine the tensorial stress field in thin plates of photoelastic materials. A six step phase shifting photoelasticity method determines principal stress directions and the difference of principal stresses. The transmission CGS method utilizes a standard four step phase shifting method to measure the x and y first derivatives of the sum of principal stresses. These stress derivatives are numerically integrated using a weighted preconditioned conjugate gradient (PCG) algorithm, which is also used for the phase unwrapping of the photoelastic and CGS phases. With full-field measurement of the sum and difference of principal stresses, the principal stresses may be separated, followed by the Cartesian and polar coordinate stresses using the principal stress directions. The method is demonstrated for a compressed polycarbonate plate with a side V-shaped notch. The experimental stress fields compare well with theoretical stress fields derived from Williams solution for a thin plate with an angular corner.     

Geometric and material nonlinearity during the deformation of micron-scale thin-film bilayers subject to thermal loading

We study, by experiments and modeling, the linear and geometric nonlinear behavior of thin-film bilayer mechanical structures subjected to thermal loading due to combined creep and stress relaxation. On the experimental side, we designed and fabricated a series of micron-scale gold ( thick)/polysilicon(1.5 and thick) beams and plates and initially thermal cycled them between room temperature and 190°C to stabilize the gold microstructure over this temperature range. After the initial thermal cycle, they are heated to 190°C where they are relatively flat, and then cooled to 120°C. During this temperature drop the thin film structures undergo linear and possibly geometrically nonlinear deformation depending on their size. They are then held at 120°C for about four weeks. During the thermal loading history we measured, using interferometry, full-field deformed shapes of the structures, from which curvature was determined. During the isothermal hold, creep and stress relaxation are observed in all of the structures, as manifested in significant curvature changes. We observe that both material and structural phenomena contribute to the observed deformation response. The interplay between the two is apparent in the plates where the initial cooling caused them to buckle, but the creep and stress relaxation then caused them to substantially unbuckle. We attempted to model the inelastic deformation by assuming simple power-law creep in the gold , and assuming that the polysilicon did not relax at the modest temperature of 120°C. In order to accurately account for the dependence of curvature and stress on position, we carried out the calculations using the finite element method. We find that with such a simple model we can qualitatively describe all of the observed phenomena, however, some quantitative discrepancies exist. Finally, we carried out a parametric study of the effects of the structure shape and the power-law creep constants on the deformation, and studied the evolution of the stress state in the films both through the thickness and in the plane of the beams and plates. Regarding the stress state, initially a significant stress gradient exists through the thickness of the films. Over time it becomes more uniform, and nearly constant in the creeping/relaxing metal film, but the gradient remains in the polysilicon film (that does not creep or relax).     

Determination of residual stresses in aluminum-alloy sheet material

A method has been developed for the determination of residual stresses in thin sheet material. Thin layers are removed by chemical etching, which induces an increasing curvature of the sheet. The initial distribution of the residual stress is derived from curvature measurements. Details of the etching procedures and the equations required for the calculations are presented. Results are given for as-rolled sheet material and for spot-peened material.     

Finite strains at the tip of a crack in a sheet of hyperelastic material: II. Special bimaterial cases

An asymptotic analysis of the strain and stress near-tip fields for a crack in a sheet of Generalized Neo-Hookean materials is presented in this second in a series of three papers. The analysis is based on the nonlinear plane stress theory of elasticity and concerns two special cases of the interface crack problem: in the first situation both components have the same hardening behavior; next, we investigate the particular case of a sheet of Generalized Neo-Hookean material bonded to a rigid substrate. The transition between the two special cases is studied in detail. The analytical results are also compared with a full-field finite element solution.