Fracture toughness of AlTiN coatings investigated by nanoindentation and microcantilever bending

Burçin Kaygusuz; Amir Motallebzadeh; Özcan Karadayı; Kürşat Kazmanlı; Sezer Özerinç

doi:10.1016/j.tsf.2024.140199

Fracture toughness of AlTiN coatings investigated by nanoindentation and microcantilever bending

Burçin Kaygusuz, Amir Motallebzadeh, Özcan Karadayı, Kürşat Kazmanlı, Sezer Özerinç^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Metal nitride coatings are increasingly used in MEMS applications. The brittle nature of these coatings makes fracture one of the main failure mechanisms during operation. Therefore, quantifying the fracture toughness of nitride coatings in a reliable fashion is important to understand the failure behavior and to optimize device performance and reliability. This study investigated the fracture toughness of AlTiN coatings produced by cathodic arc evaporation, a widely used technique in the industry. Nanoindentation and microcantilever bending-based measurements indicated a fracture toughness of 6.6 and 4.8 MPa·m^1/2, respectively. The lower toughness results of microcantilever bending were attributed to the columnar growth of the coating, which promoted crack propagation perpendicular to the film surface. The results provide useful data toward a better understanding of the fracture of hard coatings and give insight into the advantages and disadvantages of different measurement methods.

Original language	English
Article number	140199
Journal	Thin Solid Films
Volume	790
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsf.2024.140199
Publication status	Published - 15 Feb 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 Elsevier B.V.

Funding

We thank Can Okuyucu for his support in SEM imaging and Hisham Nasser for his support in wet etching of the coated substrates. We thank ODTÜ-GÜNAM, METU Central Laboratory, Koç University KUYTAM, and Bilkent University UNAM facilities for their support in characterization activities. This research was supported by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey Grant # 118M201 and Council of Higher Education (YÖK) 100/2000 doctoral scholarship. We thank Can Okuyucu for his support in SEM imaging and Hisham Nasser for his support in wet etching of the coated substrates. We thank ODTÜ-GÜNAM, METU Central Laboratory, Koç University KUYTAM, and Bilkent University UNAM facilities for their support in characterization activities. This research was supported by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey Grant #118M201 and Council of Higher Education (YÖK) 100/2000 doctoral scholarship.

Funders	Funder number
METU
ODTÜ-GÜNAM
YÖK
Türkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Araştırma Kurumu	118M201
Yükseköğretim Kurulu

Keywords

Aluminum titanium nitride
Fracture toughness
Hard coating
Microcantilever bending
Micromechanical testing
Nanoindentation
Thin film

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10.1016/j.tsf.2024.140199

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title = "Fracture toughness of AlTiN coatings investigated by nanoindentation and microcantilever bending",

abstract = "Metal nitride coatings are increasingly used in MEMS applications. The brittle nature of these coatings makes fracture one of the main failure mechanisms during operation. Therefore, quantifying the fracture toughness of nitride coatings in a reliable fashion is important to understand the failure behavior and to optimize device performance and reliability. This study investigated the fracture toughness of AlTiN coatings produced by cathodic arc evaporation, a widely used technique in the industry. Nanoindentation and microcantilever bending-based measurements indicated a fracture toughness of 6.6 and 4.8 MPa·m1/2, respectively. The lower toughness results of microcantilever bending were attributed to the columnar growth of the coating, which promoted crack propagation perpendicular to the film surface. The results provide useful data toward a better understanding of the fracture of hard coatings and give insight into the advantages and disadvantages of different measurement methods.",

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AU - Kaygusuz, Burçin

AU - Motallebzadeh, Amir

AU - Karadayı, Özcan

AU - Kazmanlı, Kürşat

AU - Özerinç, Sezer

PY - 2024/2/15

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N2 - Metal nitride coatings are increasingly used in MEMS applications. The brittle nature of these coatings makes fracture one of the main failure mechanisms during operation. Therefore, quantifying the fracture toughness of nitride coatings in a reliable fashion is important to understand the failure behavior and to optimize device performance and reliability. This study investigated the fracture toughness of AlTiN coatings produced by cathodic arc evaporation, a widely used technique in the industry. Nanoindentation and microcantilever bending-based measurements indicated a fracture toughness of 6.6 and 4.8 MPa·m1/2, respectively. The lower toughness results of microcantilever bending were attributed to the columnar growth of the coating, which promoted crack propagation perpendicular to the film surface. The results provide useful data toward a better understanding of the fracture of hard coatings and give insight into the advantages and disadvantages of different measurement methods.

AB - Metal nitride coatings are increasingly used in MEMS applications. The brittle nature of these coatings makes fracture one of the main failure mechanisms during operation. Therefore, quantifying the fracture toughness of nitride coatings in a reliable fashion is important to understand the failure behavior and to optimize device performance and reliability. This study investigated the fracture toughness of AlTiN coatings produced by cathodic arc evaporation, a widely used technique in the industry. Nanoindentation and microcantilever bending-based measurements indicated a fracture toughness of 6.6 and 4.8 MPa·m1/2, respectively. The lower toughness results of microcantilever bending were attributed to the columnar growth of the coating, which promoted crack propagation perpendicular to the film surface. The results provide useful data toward a better understanding of the fracture of hard coatings and give insight into the advantages and disadvantages of different measurement methods.

KW - Aluminum titanium nitride

KW - Fracture toughness

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KW - Microcantilever bending

KW - Micromechanical testing

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Fracture toughness of AlTiN coatings investigated by nanoindentation and microcantilever bending

Abstract

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Keywords

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