Design and experimental investigation of PZT-driving type micro/nanoindentation device

Abstract

Micro/nanoindentation device is designed by integrating the piezoelectric stack and the flexure hinge. Principle, components and working process of the developed device are analyzed. The proposed device can realize linear displacement output in the range of 0.05-30 μm. In the experimental environment without vibration isolation and constant temperature treatment, fluctuation of the measured displacement is less than 10 nm. A novel method for measuring instrument compliance is proposed. Via this method, compliance of the developed device is obtained and it is 4.8 nm/mN. Indentation testing results of fused quartz verify the feasibility of the developed device and the proposed method for measuring device compliance. The device is calibrated. The indentation experiment of single crystal silicon on the (100) crystal surface is carried out by the calibrated device. Corresponding to the maximum indentation load of 49.60 mN, pop-out phenomenon appears when the indentation load decreases to 18 mN, which indicates that the device has the ability to distinguish small changes of material structures with high resolution. Based on the Oliver Pharr method, hardness and elastic modulus of the used single crystal silicon are 16.29 GPa and 181.63 GPa respectively when the indentation load is 49.60 mN. © 2013 Journal of Mechanical Engineering.