Abstract
The issue of multiple cracks in materials and their interaction is central in understanding the overall fracture behaviour of materials. In the case of materials used in the microelectronics industry, indentation cracking has been extensively used for the measurement of fracture toughness due to its small sample size requirements as well as a relatively good correlation with values obtained from traditional fracture mechanics tests. The majority of these studies have focused on the fracture behaviour of a single indent. The present study was aimed at understanding the effect of interaction between the cracks generated on Si from a pair of sequential indents as well as a set of four sequential indents placed at the corners of a square. The distance between the indents was varied from a level comparable to the crack size to a level where interaction could be ignored. This paper discusses the changes in the nature as well as the sizes of cracks due to interaction between the stress fields of the indents.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 359-363 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Materials Research Society Symposium - Proceedings |
| Volume | 522 |
| State | Published - 1998 |
| Externally published | Yes |
| Event | Proceedings of the 1998 MRS Spring Symposium - San Francisco, CA, USA Duration: Apr 13 1998 → Apr 15 1998 |