Tensil testing of MEMS materials recent progress

Tension tests, while standardized for common structural materials, are currently being developed and used for MEMS materials by a small number of researchers. This paper presents recent progress at Hopkins in four areas: - Comparison of the tensile test method with different approaches; agreement is found with Youngs modulus measurements from membrane tests and with fracture strengths from other tensile tests. - Tension-tension fatigue; increased life with decreased applied stress is measured, yielding S-N plots similar to those of metals. - Stress versus axial and lateral strain of thick-film silicon carbide; Youngs modulus = 420 GPa, Poissons ratio = 0.21, fracture strength = 0.8 GPa. - Polysilicon stress-strain behavior at high temperatures; it deforms inelastically at temperatures above 750 *C