Regensburg 2007 – scientific programme
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MM: Fachverband Metall- und Materialphysik
MM 2: SYM Micro- and Nanomechanics I
MM 2.4: Talk
Monday, March 26, 2007, 11:45–12:00, H16
Of Pillars and Bridges, Mechanical Testing of Micro and Nano Structures — •Holger Pfaff1 and Erik Herbert2 — 1Surface, Rheinstrasse 7, 41836 Hückelhoven — 2MTS Nano Instruments, 1001 Larson Drive, Oak Ridge, TN 37830
Successive miniaturization in technology and science has created a strong need for testing materials and structures in the nano scale. As microscopic structures and thin coatings often behave significantly different from bulk materials, a detailed understanding of the underlying mechanisms is crucial for the fabrication of reliable micro products and for further technological and scientific progress.
Surface detection, accurate displacement and load control, as well as precise lateral positioning are critical issues for investigating the mechanical behavior of micro and nano structures. Hence insensitive surface detection would damage the specimen before the test. By measuring the dynamic contact stiffness, the sensitivity of surface detection is increased significantly.
The requirements of locating and addressing submicron scale features on a surface are met by scanning the specimen with the very probe used for the mechanical testing.
Several methods, combining the mentioned techniques, were developed for automatically testing fragile structures in a complex sequence of testing steps. The methods were used for investigating the mechanics of MEMS devices and fibrillar polymer structures.