Evaluation of Young's modulus and residual stress of NiFe film by microbridge testing

Microbridge testing was used to measure the Young's modulus and residual stress of metallic films. Samples of freestanding NiFe film microbridge were fabricated by microelectromechanical systems. Special ceramic shaft structure was designed to solve the problem of getting the load-deflection curve of NiFe film microbridge by the nanoindenter XP system with normal Berkovich probe. Theoretical analysis of load-deflection curves of the microbridges was proposed to evaluate the Young's modulus and residual stress of the films simultaneously. The calculated results based on experimental measurements show that the average Young's modulus and residual stress for the electroplated NiFe films are 203.2 GPa and 333.0 MPa respectively, while the Young's modulus measured by the nano-hardness method is 209.6±11.8 GPa for the thick NiFe film with silicon substrate.