Young's Modulus Characterization of Nano-Level Silicon Nanomembrane |
| |
Authors: | Xiaodong Zhu Jiajun Li Huibing Yang Fengbo Zhu Zhaoyi Guo Kun Huang Pengjie Hang Tao Chen Xuegong Yu Deren Yang |
| |
Institution: | 1. State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials and School of Materials Science & Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027 P. R. China;2. Research Center for Quantum Sensing, Zhejiang Laboratory, Hangzhou, 311000 China;3. College of Materials Science & Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, 030024 China;4. State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials and School of Materials Science & Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027 P. R. China
Shangyu Research Center of Semiconductor Materials, Shangyu, 312399 China |
| |
Abstract: | Silicon nanomembrane (SiNM) has drawn great attention for the application in nanoelectrical devices as it shows excellent flexibility and is compatible with the integrated circuit process. The mechanical property measurement of the SiNM with nanoscale thickness is critical. A suspended SiNM (40 nm thick) for mechanical measurements is fabricated by transferring a chemically etched ultrathin monocrystalline silicon film from silicon on insulator wafer to a substrate with a multi-hole array. And then, the atomic force probe is utilized to load force on the free-standing SiNM to obtain a force deflection curve, and then the Young's modulus of such floating SiNM can be directly calculated based on the large deflection plane model. It shows that the Young's modulus of such SiNM is basically consistent with that of the bulk silicon. However, the SiNMs’ floating area significantly affects the results, i.e., the Young's modulus varies with the ratio of the suspended area diameter (i.e., hole diameter) to the film thickness. The Young's modulus is independent of hole diameter when the ratio is greater than 425. According to this relationship, the variation of Young's modulus can be predicted for arbitrary thick SiNMs and any transferable nanofilms. |
| |
Keywords: | atomic force probes silicon nanomembranes suspended nanomembranes Young's modulus |
|
|