Thin-Film Microtensile-Test Structures for High-Throughput Characterization of Mechanical Properties

A photolithographic process for the rapid fabrication of thin-film tensile-test structures is presented. The process is applicable to various physical vapor deposition techniques and can be used for the combinatorial fabrication of thin film tensile test structure materials libraries for the high throughput characterization of mechanical properties. The functionality of the fabrication process and the feasibility of performing high-quality measurements with these structures is demonstrated with Cu tensile-test structures. In addition, the scalability from unary structures to libraries with compositional variations is demonstrated.