A New Method for Measuring Residual Stress in Micro and Nano Films

마이크로 및 나노 박막의 잔류응력을 측정하기위한 새로운 방법

A new method to measure residual stress in micron and nano scale films is described. In the theory it is based on Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics. And in the techniques it depends on the combined capability of the focused ion beam (FIB) imaging system and of high-resolution digital image correlation (DIC) software. The method can be used for any film material (whether amorphous or crystalline) without thinning the substrate. In the method, a region of the film surface is highlighted and scanning electron images of that region taken before and after a long slot, depth a, is introduced using the FIB. The DIC software evaluates the displacement of the surface normal to the slot due to the stress relaxation by using features on the film surface. To minimize the influence of signal noise and rigid body movement, not a few, but all of the measure displacements are used for determining the real residual stress. The accuracy of the method has been assessed by performing measurements on a nano film of diamond like carbon (DLC) on glass substrate and on micro film of aluminum oxide thermally grown on Fecrally substrate. It is shown that the new method determines the residual stress ${\sigma}_R=-1.73$ GPa for DLC and ${\sigma}_R=-5.45$ GPa for the aluminum oxide, which agree quite well with ones measured independently.