Research trends for mechanical characterization of MEMS materials in Korea: Research needs and new developments

The mechanical properties of microelectromechanical system (MEMS) materials are the basic parameters for designing MEMS devices and evaluating their reliability. The methods used to measure them, however, are not yet well established, and several unresolved issues require further investigation. In this paper, we introduce recent work on the mechanical characterization of MEMS materials in Korea with an emphasis on research needs and new developments. After a description of the research needs of MEMS industries, research activities on tensile and fatigue tests are introduced. Because of a strong interest in simpler test methods in Korea, their concepts and technical issues are described, especially for indentation, stripbending, and pillar compression tests. Some techniques based on atomic force microscope (AFM) are also introduced as new research activities.