Bulge Test on Free Standing Gold Thin Films

Abstract

ABSTRACTBulge test was performed on gold and gold/nitride composite films with in plane sizes ranging from 20 to 200μm. The films were prepared using the microfabrication process of a drug delivery MEMS device, and the bulge test setup was constructed using some of the packaging components of the device. Incremental pressure at 5psi interval was applied to the films, whose deflection was measured using interferometry. The extracted gold film properties from bulge test on either pure gold films or composite films yielded comparable values. The lower modulus (126∼168 GPa) comparing with the bulk gold could be due to the less dense microstructure of the evaporated gold film.