A Study of Mechanical Behavior of Au Films by Visual Image Tracing System

Mechanical behavior of small size materials has been explored due to many industry applications such as MEMs and semiconductors. The accurate measurements for mechanical properties of thin films are very challenge due to several technical difficulties. The proposed solution is the Visual Image Tracing (VIT) strain measurement system coupled with a micro tensile testing unit, which consists of a piezoelectric actuator, load cell, microscope and CCD cameras. This system has shown advantages of real time strain monitoring during the test and ability to measure the Young’s modulus, yiled strength and Poisson’s ratio of the material. Free standing Au films 0.5, 1 and 2 μm thick with average grain sizes of 104, 148 and 219 nm prepared by sputtering were studied using VIT system. The yield stresses of the films are dependent on film thickness and grain size.