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Controlling and testing the fracture strength of silicon at the mesoscale

Controlling and testing the fracture strength of silicon at the mesoscale
Controlling and testing the fracture strength of silicon at the mesoscale
Strength characterizations and supporting analysis of mesoscale biaxial flexure and radiused hub flexure single-crystal silicon specimens are presented. The Weibull reference strengths of planar biaxial flexure specimens were found to lie in the range 1.2 to 4.6 GPa. The local strength at stress concentrations was obtained by testing radiused hub flexure specimens. For the case of deep reactive ion-etched specimens the strength at fillet radii was found to be significantly lower than that measured on planar specimens. This result prompted the introduction of an additional isotropic etch after the deep reactive ion etch step to recover the strength in such regions. The mechanical test results reported herein have important implications for the development of highly stressed microfabricated structures. The sensitivity of the mechanical strength to etching technique must be accounted for in the structural design cycle, particularly with regard to the selection of fabrication processes. The scatter of data measured in the mechanical tests clearly illustrated the need to use a probabilistic design approach. Weibull statistics may be the appropriate means to describe the data, although a simple two-parameter Weibull model only provides a moderately good fit to the experimental data reported in this study.
0002-7820
1476-1484
Chen, K-S.
2d81f340-0729-4838-ac4e-702a62ef70c0
Ayon, A.
3470952f-d419-4560-8d0d-93a264d89594
Spearing, S.M.
9e56a7b3-e0e8-47b1-a6b4-db676ed3c17a
Chen, K-S.
2d81f340-0729-4838-ac4e-702a62ef70c0
Ayon, A.
3470952f-d419-4560-8d0d-93a264d89594
Spearing, S.M.
9e56a7b3-e0e8-47b1-a6b4-db676ed3c17a

Chen, K-S., Ayon, A. and Spearing, S.M. (2000) Controlling and testing the fracture strength of silicon at the mesoscale. Journal of the American Ceramic Society, 83 (6), 1476-1484. (doi:10.1111/j.1151-2916.2000.tb01413.x).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Strength characterizations and supporting analysis of mesoscale biaxial flexure and radiused hub flexure single-crystal silicon specimens are presented. The Weibull reference strengths of planar biaxial flexure specimens were found to lie in the range 1.2 to 4.6 GPa. The local strength at stress concentrations was obtained by testing radiused hub flexure specimens. For the case of deep reactive ion-etched specimens the strength at fillet radii was found to be significantly lower than that measured on planar specimens. This result prompted the introduction of an additional isotropic etch after the deep reactive ion etch step to recover the strength in such regions. The mechanical test results reported herein have important implications for the development of highly stressed microfabricated structures. The sensitivity of the mechanical strength to etching technique must be accounted for in the structural design cycle, particularly with regard to the selection of fabrication processes. The scatter of data measured in the mechanical tests clearly illustrated the need to use a probabilistic design approach. Weibull statistics may be the appropriate means to describe the data, although a simple two-parameter Weibull model only provides a moderately good fit to the experimental data reported in this study.

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Published date: 2000

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 22767
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/22767
ISSN: 0002-7820
PURE UUID: c5409658-8306-4ca5-90af-7669b75f38ab
ORCID for S.M. Spearing: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-3059-2014

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Date deposited: 06 Feb 2007
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 03:37

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Contributors

Author: K-S. Chen
Author: A. Ayon
Author: S.M. Spearing ORCID iD

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