On the accurate determination of the thermomechanical properties of micro-scale material: Application to AlSi1% chip metallization of a power semiconductor device

This paper presents a method and an experimental technique supporting the accurate measurement of the thermomechanical parameters (coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), Young’s modulus, yield stress and internal stress) of a thin metallic film used in microelectronic chip fabrication. First the theoretical background of the method is presented along with the process of fabrication of bilayer microcantilevers. Then the experimental setup of measurement and the measurement results obtained on a thin aluminum layer are given and discussed. The accuracy of the method is demonstrated and enables us to observe mechanical property variations over a temperature range of 80 °C as well as metal hardening phenomena.