Microhardness Testing

Microhardness testing is commonly used for evaluating the hardness of materials. The uNano can be equipped with a Vickers indenter tip to perform traditional microhardness tests, including target selection, indentation, and indent area measurement.

Depth Sensing Indentation (Oliver-Pharr)

Mechanical characterization is critical in the process and manufacture of films, including the quality of coatings in the automotive industry, as well as during process control of front-end and back-end semiconductor manufacturing.

The uNano micromechanical tester is capable of measuring hardness and modulus for a wide variety of materials, from ultra-soft gels to hard coatings. The high-speed assessment of these properties enables quality control and assurance on production lines.

ISO 14577 Hardness Testing

The uNano system includes a pre-written ISO 14577 Test Method that measures material hardness in compliance with the ISO 14577 standard. This test method automatically measures and reports Young’s modulus, instrumented hardness, Vickers hardness and the normalized work-of-indentation.

Polymer Tan Delta, Storage and Loss Modulus

The uNano materials measurement system is capable of measuring both tan delta and the storage and loss modulus for ultra-soft materials, including viscoelastic polymers. Storage and loss modulus and tan delta are important properties of viscoelastic polymers, whose energy is stored as elastic energy and dissipated as heat. Both of these metrics measure energy dissipation in a given material. Contact us to request this feature as an option for your uNano.

Quantitative Scratch and Wear Testing

The uNano system can perform scratch and wear testing on a variety of materials. Coatings and films are subjected to many processes that test the strength of these films and their adhesion to the substrate, such as chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) and wire bonding. It is important for these materials to resist plastic deformation during these processes, and to remain intact without blistering up from the substrate. Ideally, a dielectric material will have a high hardness and elastic modulus because these parameters help define how the material will react when subjected to manufacturing processes. Contact us to request this feature as an option for your uNano.

Strength of Materials

The uNano micromechanical tester can be used to experimentally confirm beam bending models for cantilevers and bridges. Using MEMS techniques to fabricate samples with a variety of geometries, students can correlate analytical models to real-world test results safely and inexpensively. Contact us to request this feature as an option for your uNano.

Statistical Analysis

Using the uNano system’s ability to perform high-speed experiments, students can run a large number of mechanical tests to generate statistical data, including histograms, standard deviation, student T-tests and other statistical metrics.

Correlation of Mechanical Properties to Material Structure and Processes

The default workbook and sample kit for the uNano includes an Al-Cu alloy with predefined fabrication, annealing, and polishing processes. The uNano can be used to measure hardness across the two Al-Cu phases to relate these properties to surface structure and processing characteristics.

High Temperature Mechanical Testing

Mechanical testing at elevated temperatures is critical to characterizing material performance under thermal stress, especially for quantifying failure mechanisms during thermomechanical processing. Varying the sample temperature during mechanical testing enables not only the measurement of thermal-induced behavioral changes, but also quantification of transition plasticity of materials. The optional heated stage on the uNano enables mechanical testing, up to 300°C.

High Speed Material Property Maps

For many materials, including composites, the mechanical properties may vary widely from one area to the next. The uNano micromechanical tester provides a sample stage movement of 100mm in the X and Y axes, and 25mm in the Z axis, allowing testing of a wide range of sample heights over a large sample area. The optional NanoBlitz Topography and Tomography software can quickly generate color maps of any of the measured mechanical properties. Contact us to request this feature as an option on your uNano system.