Tensile testing of polysilicon

Tensile specimens of polysilicon are deposited on a silicon wafer; one end remains affixed to the wafer and the other end has a relatively large paddle that can be gripped by an electrostatic probe. The overall length of the specimen is less than 2 mm, but the smooth tensile portion can be as small as 1.5×2μm in cross section and 50μm long. The specimen is pulled by a computer-controlled translation stage. Force is recorded with a 100-g load cell, whereas displacement is recorded with a capacitance-based transducer. Strain can be measured directly on wider specimens with laser-based interferometry from two small gold markers deposited on the smooth portion of the specimen. The strength of this linear and brittle material is measured with relative ease. Young's modulus measurement is more difficult; it can be determined from either the stress-strain curve, the record of force versus displacement or the comparison of the records of two specimens of different sizes. Specimens of different sizes—thicknesses of 1.5 or 3.5 μm, widths from 2 to 50 μm and lengths from 50 to 500 μm—were tested. The average tensile strength of this polysilicon is 1.45±0.19 GPa (210 ±28 ksi) for the 27 specimens that could be broken with electrostatic gripping. The average Young's modulus from force displacement records of 43 specimens is 162±14 GPa (23.5 ±2.0×103 ksi). This single value is misleading because the modulus values tend to increase with decreasing specimen width; that is not the case for the strength. The three methods for determining the modulus agree in general, although the scatter can be large.