MICROINDENTATION ADHESION TESTER AND ITS APPLICATION TO THIN-FILMS

Adhesion measurements are made for various thin films with submicron thickness using a newly developed tester. The tester consists mainly of an indenter actuator, a load detector with a 0.1-mu-N resolution, an optical displacement sensor with a 4 nm resolution, an acoustic emission (AE) analyzer, and a personal computer system. Prominent features of the tester are a piezo-electric ceramic indenter to detect feeble AE signals owing to thin film delamination from a substrate, and an inclined sample holder to apply shear force to an interface. Measurable maximum adhesion strength is about 500 MPa for a sputtered SiO2 film/quartz glass substrate specimen. Applications for some thin films, such as a sputtered carbon and various Au alloy films, are also described. The experimental results provide quantitative information about mechanical or atmospheric durability of various thin film devices.