Measurement of mechanical and thermal properties of co-sputtered WSi thin film for MEMS applications

In this study, mechanical and thermal properties of the co-sputtered tungsten silicide (WSi) thin film were evaluated to consider the possibility of its use in MEMS applications. WSi film was prepared by cosputtering and basic micromachining processes, and its mechanical and thermal properties such as Young’s modulus, temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR), strain gauge factor, coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) and thermal stress were studied. The measurement method was simple and efficient since only one test pattern was used for all measurements. At room temperature, the TCR, gauge factor, CTE and thermal stress were measured to be -670 ppm/ C, 2.8, 32 ppm/ C and 1.76 GPa, respectively. The dependence of these coefficients on temperature was also evaluated experimentally.