Micromechanical Measurement System for Thin Films on Plymeric Substrates

A micromechanical testing instrument is proposed to quantitatively measure properties such as adhesion, scratch resistance and fracture resistance of very thin (<0.1um) hard films such as DLC or polymeric subtrates, and to provide in situ AFM and/or STM imaging capabilities so that convenient, rapid, high resolution imaging of the microindentations and microscratches is available for analysis. The proposed instrument feasibility will be demonstrated by building a working prototype and performing microindentation and microscratch tests on DLC thin films and other materials for comparison of results with published data and similar tests performed with the IBM microindenter. These tests will determine the instrument's resolution in the applied load and displacement measurements, and its ability to correlate micromechanical properties with experimentally measured micromechanical failures. Successful completion of this program would result in components that can be used with a standard STM to perform microindentation and microscratch testing on a wide range of materials, with the ability to image the surface in situ before and after testing. These components are expected to provide a force resolution in both the normal and transverse directions of 100nN, with a full scale range of 10mN, and displacement resolution of 1nm (10 degrees A).