Full field and microregion deformation measurement of thin films using electronic speckle pattern interferometry and array microindentation marker method

Thin films now are widely used in micro devices and structures, such as MEMS, electronic packaging, micro sensors, and so on. Their performances highly affect the reliability of the devices. Therefore, it is important to investigate the deformation and the failure mechanism of thin films. In this paper, we present two experimental methods to measure the mechanical properties of thin films. In the first method, a double-field-of-view electronic speckle pattern interferometry system (ESPI) and an integrated deformation and load measurement system are employed, which allows in situ and real-time measurements of full-field deformations of the thin films and microforces under uniaxial tensile test. In the second method, the array microindentation markers were indented on the surface of the thin film using a nanoindenter and the microregion deformations of the tested thin films were measured. In the proposed methods, the tested thin films can be made of metals, oxide ceramics, and multi-layer composites of thickness from several tens micrometers to less than a micron, and the tensile loads from 88 μN to 15 N for the first method or up to 100 N to the second one. The underlying principle of the methods and the experimental set-ups are presented. The deformations of Au and Au/Cr multi-layer films, and the pure Ni films are measured. The performance of the methods and the testing systems are also discussed.