Reliability of polycrystalline silicon under long-term cyclic loading

The long-term mechanical behavior of 3.5 /spl mu/m thick and 50 /spl mu/m wide polysilicon tensile specimens under tension-tension cyclic loading was investigated. The initial fracture strength, /spl sigma//sub c/, was 1.1 GPa. If the applied maximum cyclic stress was reduced by about 35% to a value of /spl sigma//sub f/=0.75 GPa, the specimens failed after 10/sup 8/ cycles. No influence of frequency in the range of 50 to 1000 Hz was observed.