An Instrument for Measuring Mechanical Properties of MEMS Materials by Nanoindentation and Micro-Beam-Bending

This paper presents an instrument for measuring the mechanical properties of MEMS materials by both nanoindentation and micro-beam-bending tests. The nanoindentation test requires high resolution within a very small displacement range, whereas the micro-beam-bending test needs relatively large displacement range but lower resolution. Though, for both tests, loading with small increment is necessary. In order to satisfy different requirements and yet save cost, a two-stage system driven by a PZT actuator in the first stage and by a DC-Mike Linear motor in the second stage is designed and built. The instrument achieves a displacement resolution better than 1 nm within a range of 50 microns in the first stage and the maximum output displacement is over 1 mm in the second stage. The measurement accuracy is validated through experiments.