MECHANICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF MICROBEAM BY THE DEFLECTION TECHNIQUE ASSOCIATED WITH AN IMAGERY METHOD

During the last decade, the domain of micro-techniques has had a formi dable development. Today, the separate study of components is replaced by the design of micro-system assembling all these domains (electroni c, optic, data processing...). Meanwhile, the knowledge of constituant materials mechanical properties (elastic and inelastic) remains vital . Therefore, new means to characterize thin film materials are needed. Among possible tests, the bending test of clamped-clamped or clamped- free microbeams has been holded. We present this technique and the sig nificant role played by the imagery method to measure the beam deflect ion. To validate the principle and the possibilities of this bending t est we present several results obtained with single crystals of silico n and with electro-deposited nickel. The good correlation obtained bet ween the experiments and the calculated profiles of the deformed beams allows to validate the whole of the experimental set-up.