Determination of young's modulus of PZT and Co80Ni20 thin films by means of micromachined cantilevers

This paper presents a technique to determine the Young’s modulus and residual stress of thin films using a simple micromachined silicon cantilever as the test structure. An analytical relation was developed based on the shift in resonance frequency caused by the addition of a thin film on the cantilever. FEM simulations were performed which confirmed the validity of assumptions made in our analytical model. Resonance frequency measurements both before and after the deposition of the thin film improve the accuracy of the results. Experiments were performed on PZT deposited by pulsed laser deposition and on evaporated Co80Ni20 thin films.