Title:
Influence of frequency and environment on the fatigue behavior of monocrystalline silicon thin films

dc.contributor.advisor Pierron, Olivier N.
dc.contributor.author Theillet, Pierre-Olivier en_US
dc.contributor.committeeMember Neu, Richard W.
dc.contributor.committeeMember Zhu, Ting
dc.contributor.department Mechanical Engineering en_US
dc.date.accessioned 2010-06-10T17:00:40Z
dc.date.available 2010-06-10T17:00:40Z
dc.date.issued 2009-04-08 en_US
dc.description.abstract Understanding the mechanisms for fatigue crack initiation and propagation in micron-scale silicon (Si) is of great importance to assess and improve the reliability of Si based microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) in harsh environments. Accordingly, this investigation studies the fatigue properties of 10-micron-thick single-crystal Si (SCSi) films using kHz-frequency resonating structures under fully-reversed loading. Overall, the stress plays a major role on the fatigue properties: decreasing the stress amplitude from ~3-3.5 GPa to ~1.5-2 GPa results in an increase in lifetime from 10² to 10¹⁰ cycles, and a decrease in degradation rate by 4-5 orders of magnitude. In addition to stress, the influences of resonant frequency (4 vs. 40 kHz) and environment (30°C, 50%RH vs. 80°C, 30%RH and 80°C, 90%RH) on the resulting S-N curves and resonant frequency evolution are thoroughly investigated. In the high- to very high-cycle fatigue (HCF/VHCF) regime, both the frequency and environment strongly affect the fatigue properties. Damage accumulation rates are significantly higher in harsh environments. In 80°C, 90%RH the rates exceed by one to two orders of magnitude the values at 30°C, 50%RH for similar stress amplitudes. The separate influence of humidity, affecting the adsorbed water layer thickness, is also highlighted at 80°C: the decrease rates are measured up to one order of magnitude lower at 30%RH than at 90%RH. Moreover, a strong influence of frequency is detected. These observations bring further evidence supporting reaction-layer fatigue as a viable description of the HCF/VHCF behavior of micron-scale Si. en_US
dc.description.degree M.S. en_US
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/1853/33957
dc.publisher Georgia Institute of Technology en_US
dc.subject Frequency en_US
dc.subject Fatigue en_US
dc.subject Thin films en_US
dc.subject Temperature en_US
dc.subject Relative humidity en_US
dc.subject MEMS en_US
dc.subject Silicon en_US
dc.subject Resonators en_US
dc.subject.lcsh Thin films
dc.subject.lcsh Silicon Fatigue
dc.subject.lcsh Microelectromechanical systems
dc.subject.lcsh Silicon Cracking
dc.title Influence of frequency and environment on the fatigue behavior of monocrystalline silicon thin films en_US
dc.type Text
dc.type.genre Thesis
dspace.entity.type Publication
local.contributor.advisor Pierron, Olivier N.
local.contributor.corporatename George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
local.contributor.corporatename College of Engineering
relation.isAdvisorOfPublication 191ce8e6-f310-410f-8976-b7d62bf312c0
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication c01ff908-c25f-439b-bf10-a074ed886bb7
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication 7c022d60-21d5-497c-b552-95e489a06569
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