Mechanical Properties of High Stressed Silicon Nitride Beam Measured by Quasi-static and Dynamic Techniques

Due to their high sensitivity, fast response, small energy consumption and ease of integration, nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) have attracted much interest in various applications such as high speed memory devices, energy harvesting devices, frequency tunable RF receivers, and ultra sensitive mass sensors. Since the device performance of NEMS is closely related with the mechanical and flexural properties of the material in NEMS, analysis of the mechanical and flexural properties such as intrinsic tensile stress and Young's modulus is a crucial factor for designing the NEMS structures. In the present work, the intrinsic mechanical properties of highly stressed silicon nitride (SiN) beams are investigated as a function of the beam length using two different techniques: (i) dynamic flexural measurement using optical interferometry and (ii) quasi-static flexural measurement using atomic force microscopy. The reliability of the results is analysed by comparing the results from the two different measurement techniques. In addition, the mass density, Young's modulus and internal stress of the SiN beams are estimated by combining the techniques, and the prospect of SiN based NEMS for application in high sensitive mass sensors is discussed.