Date: 02/12/2010

Nanoscale mechanical testing using Agilent's Nanoindentation technique

Agilent Technologies Inc. has announced an innovative nanoindentation technique available exclusively on the Agilent Nano Indenter G200 instrumentation platform to make substrate-independent measurements on thin film materials mainly used in semiconductor industry. It is suggested as ideal solution for evaluating the elastic modulus of hard samples on soft substrates, or of soft samples on hard substrates.

"Our application scientists have created an intelligent, simple-to-use solution to a longstanding nanoindentation challenge," said Jeff Jones, operations manager for Agilent's nano instrumentation facility in Chandler, Ariz. "The new technique will have an immediate impact on research being conducted across a wide range of disciplines."

Substrate influence is a common problem when using nanoindentation to evaluate the elastic modulus of thin film materials. The technique is able to extract the film modulus from the measured substrate-affected modulus, assuming that the film thickness and substrate modulus are known. The technique is applicable to a variety of film-substrate systems.

The G200 utilizes electromagnetic actuation to achieve dynamic range in force and displacement. The G200 enables measurement of Young's modulus and hardness in compliance with ISO 14577, as well as measurement of deformation over six orders of magnitude - from nanometers to millimeters.