On-chip fracture testing of freestanding nanoscale materials

•An upgraded version of nanomechanical lab on chip test platform is proposed.•A new data reduction scheme improves the results accuracy and decreases dispersion.•A new tapered actuator shape design allows the control of the strain rate.•The fracture of mono-Si films is more size dependent than poly-Si films.•Cu films exhibit damage and failure mechanisms changing with strain rate.

Recent enhancements of a versatile on-chip MEMS-based method dedicated to the deformation and fracture testing of freestanding nano-objects are described and applied to ∼200 nm-thick silicon and copper films. The principle relies on the relaxation of internal stress present in actuator beams to deform test specimens owing to the etching of underneath sacrificial layer. Micro- and nano-fabrication methods produce thousands of elementary testing structures with various designs and loading configurations leading to statistically relevant fracture data. The data reduction scheme for analyzing the results of these tests has been recently upgraded and applied to silicon and copper films.