Mechanical properties of in-situ doped polycrystalline 3C-SiC thin films

Abstract

3C-SiC thin film is widely used extreme environment, RF and Bio-material in micro/nano electronic mechanical systems (M/NEMS). Mechanical properties of 3C-SiC thin films are required in the designing stage, because it is needed to accurately measuring Young's Modulus and hardness. The Young's Modulus and hardness is influenced by N-doping. In this paper, it was showed that the mechanical properties of polycrystalline (poly) 3C-SiC thin film was influenced by N-doping concentration, and 3C-SiC thin film's mechanical properties according to the N-doping concentration 1%, 3%, 5%, respectively was measured by Nano Indentation. In the case of 1 % N-doping concentration, Young"s Modulus and Hardness were obtained as 270 GPa and 30 GPa, respectively. When the surface roughness according to N-doping concentrations was investigated by AFM (atomic force microscope), the roughness of 3C-SiC thin film doped by 5 % concentration was 15 nm, which is also the best of them.