Mechanical Property Measurement of Micro/Nanoscale Materials for MEMS : A Review

By virtue of a great progress of semiconductor fabrication technologies, micro electro‐mechanical systems (MEMS) have been developed for a wide variety of industries. For reliability of MEMS, micromaterials in MEMS need to be examined experimentally, and the obtained results need to be reflected in the design of MEMS. In addition, with the benefit of such the MEMS technology, nowadays mechanical characteristics of nanomaterials have been evaluated precisely. Nanoscale mechanical testing provides an opportunity to find new unique physical phenomena, such as plastic deformation in Si at intermediate temperatures. In this review paper, mechanical testing technologies developed for investigating micro and nanoscale materials are reviewed. Then, mechanical characteristics of Si and other materials evaluated using the micro and nano mechanical testing technologies are introduced. © 2022 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.