| The determination of mechanical properties in nanoscale geometries is becoming increasingly important as microsystem and integrated circuit technologies continue to mature. Many devices produced by these technologies are composed of materials with critical sample dimensions smaller than 100 nm. In microelectronics, this can be the thickness of a metallization or dielectric layer, while wear coatings on MEMS devices are frequently thinner than this length scale. Since structures of this type are susceptible to plasticity and fracture as a result of either contact or residual stresses, it is critical that the mechanical behavior of the individual components be well described.; This thesis is directed at the development of methods for characterizing the mechanical properties in small volume systems. Using instrumented indentation techniques, typically called nanoindentation, a systematic study of the mechanical response of materials ranging from ductile metals to brittle ceramics was executed. More specifically, investigations into how single length scale approaches may be used to describe mechanical properties such as indentation hardening, ductile film delamination and strain energy release rates were performed. In addition, the acoustic energy released during the fracture of brittle ceramics was related to both stress intensity and a strain energy release rate. Finite element simulations of nanoindentation tests were performed using ABAQUS, a commercially available material modeling software program. These simulations were used to separate individual film and substrate responses from the experimentally observed film/substrate composite mechanical behavior. Finally, quasi-tribological experiments were performed to probe for transitions in friction or wear response as the local deformation varied from the nanoscale to the macroscale. |
