As new engineering coatings get ever thinner and more technologically advanced, there is an increasing demand for accurate assessment of the mechanical properties of the thin films, for instance ultra-thin carbon layers on magnetic heads, electronic pads for MEMS and LB films. The rapidly expanding field of depth-sensing evaluation and techniques related provides a quantitative method for mapping the micro mechanical properties. A new type of nano test system was introduced, the technology principle and the data analysis metho0d were described. It was used to test the performance of thin films on silicon wafer, steel and glass prepared by many kinds of technologies, this included nanoindentation, to evaluate the mechanical properties, such as hardness, elasticity modulus, and nanotopography to test the thickness and roughness, and nanoscratch to investigate the scratch resistance as well as the deformation and failure behaviour of the films. The results show that nanoindentation and nanoscratch techniques are very useful tools in charactering the performance of thin films in nano scale.

Date Published: 31 December 2008
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 7130, Fourth International Symposium on Precision Mechanical Measurements, 71300M (31 December 2008); doi: 10.1117/12.819558

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7130:
Fourth International Symposium on Precision Mechanical Measurements
Yetai Fei; Kuang-Chao Fan; Rongsheng Lu, Editor(s)