A Novel High-Throughput Measurement Method for Determining the Elastic Moduli of Polymer Thin Films

Published

July 17, 2006

Author(s)

Christopher M. Stafford, C Harrison

Abstract

Thin films are increasingly being used in technological applications involving dielec-tric coatings, resist layers for lithography, electronic packaging, optical coatings, etc. As chemists design and synthesize new materials for such applications and do so in progressively smaller quantities, there is a growing need for measurement techniques that probe the mechanical properties of these materials not in the bulk state but rather in their application form of thin films. To address this need, a reliable, high-throughput measurement platform has been developed by which the elastic modulus of thin polymer films/coatings can be measured both rapidly and quantitatively. This platform is ideally suited to be integrated into various combinatorial methodologies to generate two-dimensional maps of the mechanical properties of polymer films with spatially varying properties.Several model systems have been investigated that showcase the broad applicability of this technique to a wide range of film thicknesses (20 nm to 50 mm) and moduli (5 MPa to 10 GPa). Indeed, this technique is quite simple and practically any laboratory, academic or industrial, can perform such measurements with only mod-est investment in equipment.

Citation

Encyclopedia of Materials

Pub Type

Encyclopedias

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Keywords

combinatorial, high-thoughput, mechanical properties, modulus, polymer, polystyrene, thin film

Citation

Stafford, C. and Harrison, C. (2006), A Novel High-Throughput Measurement Method for Determining the Elastic Moduli of Polymer Thin Films, Encyclopedia of Materials, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=852281 (Accessed April 18, 2024)