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A Nanoindentation Study of Thermally-Grown-Oxide Films on Silicon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Fatih Helvaci
Affiliation:
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering, State University of New York Binghamton, NY 13902, USA
Junghyun Cho
Affiliation:
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering, State University of New York Binghamton, NY 13902, USA
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Abstract

We explore the effect of the substrate on mechanical behavior of thin films using a depth-sensing indentation. For this purpose, nanoindentation has been performed on thermally grown silicon oxide films on the silicon substrate. One primary goal of this study is to extract ‘film-only’ mechanical properties from the nanoindentation data by subtracting the substrate effect. It is also shown that elastic modulus of the film is more influenced by the substrate than hardness due to a larger elastic extension beyond a plastically deformed region, as well as a larger elastic mismatch between the SiO2 film and the Si substrate. Further, an inverse analysis of indentation data is proposed to estimate a thickness of thin films. Consequently, this study provides a fundamental understanding in mechanical phenomena of thin films occurring at nanoscales.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2005

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References

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