Anisotropy effects on the reliability of single-crystal silicon

Anisotropy effects on the reliability of single-crystal silicon were investigated by means of scratch tests along [1 1 0] and [1 0 0] crystallographic directions. It was found that fracture (partial cone cracks) starts along favoured {1 1 0} and {1 1 1} cleavage planes, with crack orientation varying upon the scratching direction. Moreover, the [1 0 0] direction was found to be twice as reliable as the [1 1 0] direction. Stress and phase analyses were carried out to explain this effect, which has implications for the design of silicon-based devices.