Investigations of mechanical properties of microfabricated resonators using atomic force microscopy related techniques

[Display omitted] •The silicon nitride microresonators with non-uniform cross-section were fabricated.•We report a characterization procedures of microstructures using atomic force microscopy methods.•We examine mechanical properties such a stiffness of microresonators.•We presented procedures enabl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Microelectronic engineering 2014-05, Vol.119, p.164-168
Main Authors: Moczała, Magdalena, Kopiec, Daniel, Sierakowski, Andrzej, Dobrowolski, Rafał, Grabiec, Piotr, Gotszalk, Teodor
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Atomic force microscopy
Atomic force microscopy (AFM)
Atomic structure
Contact
Deflection
Mechanical properties
Nanomechanics
Resonators
Silicon nitride
Stiffness
Tapping
Topography
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Summary:[Display omitted] •The silicon nitride microresonators with non-uniform cross-section were fabricated.•We report a characterization procedures of microstructures using atomic force microscopy methods.•We examine mechanical properties such a stiffness of microresonators.•We presented procedures enable local characterization of the fabricated silicon microstructures. In this article we demonstrate application of atomic force microscopy (AFM) related techniques in characterization of mechanical properties of micromechanical resonators. The investigated structures are a group of doubly clamped beams of 100nm thick silicon nitride fabricated by low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) and lithography with reflective aluminum coating of 10nm thickness. Width and length of the fabricated and tested structures vary in the range from 3 up to 10μm and from 20 to 80μm respectively. In order to determine the structure stiffness force deflection curves were recorded using contact mode (CM) atomic force microscope at the defined resonator position. Moreover the contact resonance (CR) AFM was applied in order to determine the resonance frequencies of the tested microfabricated resonators. Additionally, in order to estimate the stress in the resonator bilayer structure tapping mode (TM) AFM topography investigations were conducted and the recorded topography images analyzed.
ISSN:0167-9317
1873-5568
DOI:10.1016/j.mee.2014.04.006