Temperature dependence of mechanical stiffness and dissipation in ultrananocrystalline diamond

Ultrananocrystalline diamond (UNCD) films are promising for radio frequency micro electro mechanical systems (RF-MEMS) resonators due to the extraordinary physical properties of diamond, such as high Young’s modulus, quality factor, and stable surface chemistry. UNCD films used for this study are grown on 150 mm silicon wafers using hot filament chemical vapor deposition (HFCVD) at 680°C. UNCD fixed free (cantilever) resonator structures designed for the resonant frequencies in the kHz range have been fabricated using conventional microfabrication techniques and are wet released. Resonant excitation and ring down measurements in the temperature range of 138 K to 300 K were conducted under ultra high vacuum (UHV) conditions in a custom built UHV AFM stage to determine the temperature dependence of Young’s Modulus and dissipation (quality factor) in these UNCD cantilever structures. We measured a temperature coefficient of frequency (TCF) of 121 and 133 ppm/K for the cantilevers of 350 μm and 400 μm length respectively. Young’s modulus of the cantilevers increased by about 3.1% as the temperature was reduced from 300 K to 138 K. This is the first such measurement for UNCD and suggests that the nanostructure plays a significant role in modifying the thermo-mechanical response of the material. The quality factor of these resonators showed a moderate increase as the cantilevers were cooled from 300 K to 138 K. The results suggest that surface and bulk defects significantly contribute to the observed dissipation in UNCD resonators. Keyword list Temperature dependence of Young’s modulus, quality factor, resonators, ultrananocrystalline diamond, dissipation, mechanical properties, grain boundaries, defects, nanocrystalline materials, Debye temperature