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Mechanical Properties of Near-Frictionless Hydrogenated Amorphous Carbon Freestanding Thin Films for MEMS Devices


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dc.contributor.advisorProrok, Barton
dc.contributor.advisorFergus, Jeffreyen_US
dc.contributor.advisorCheng, Zhongyangen_US
dc.contributor.authorZhou, Boen_US
dc.date.accessioned2008-09-09T21:19:38Z
dc.date.available2008-09-09T21:19:38Z
dc.date.issued2005-12-15en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10415/554
dc.description.abstractDiamond-Like carbon (DLC) films with a mixture of sp2 and sp3 hybridizations have exhibited excellent properties such as chemical stability, wear resistance, optical transparency and are now widely used as protective overcoatings in various fields. In this paper, the membrane deflection experiment (MDE) was used for measuring the Young’s modulus, fracture strength, and residual stress of the so-called Near-frictionless carbon (NFC) films developed at Argonne National Laboratory. In this method, free standing NFC membranes were fabricated and stretched by a nanoindenter while deflection was monitored with an interferometer. By combining these two independent measurements, the mechanical properties of NFC films were characterized. The specific a-C:H films were grown at Argonne National Lab and are those films that exhibited excellent tribological properties with super low friction coefficients of 0.002. The Young’s modulus of NFC films measured from 45 membranes ranged from 32 GPa to 38 GPa. The average (arithmetic mean) value was 35.13 GPa. The standard deviation was 2.292 GPa. The fracture strength varied from 0.12 GPa to 0.90 GPa and the residual stress ranged from 79 MPa to 310 MPa. Width and thickness effects of the membranes were also studied in this work. It was found the fracture strength increased with decreasing membrane width and thickness. The residual stress increased with decreasing membrane thickness.en_US
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.subjectMaterials Engineeringen_US
dc.titleMechanical Properties of Near-Frictionless Hydrogenated Amorphous Carbon Freestanding Thin Films for MEMS Devicesen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
dc.embargo.lengthNO_RESTRICTIONen_US
dc.embargo.statusNOT_EMBARGOEDen_US

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