My undergraduate thesis describes the development of a system to address the need to quickly characterize the material properties in a polymer MEMS process. A drop-in test die was created which contains a variety of mechanical test structures. This test die is placed in wafer designs as necessary. After the wafer fabrication process the test die is separated and placed into a holder which can be mechanically actuated in-plane. The system sweeps the frequency used to drive the actuator while capturing images. Software analysis on the images is used to determine the resonance frequency of each test structure. The software also determines the actual dimensions of each test structure. Using these dimensions, the Young’s modulus and tensile stress of the material is determined.

Publications

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