In Situ Thermal-Mechanical Fatigue Testing of Thin Au Lines

An in-situ testing system for thermal-mechanical fatigue of thin metal lines was setup inside a dual-beam focused ion beam (FIB)/scanning electron microscope (SEM) system. Alternating currents (AC) were applied to narrow Au lines 200-nm-thick through nanomanipulator needles. Preliminary results show that severe thermal-mechanical fatigue damage can be generated by the action of the applied AC. The in-situ recording of the evolution of the damage has been carried out and the possible mechanism of the thermal-mechanical fatigue damage in the Au lines resulted from the joule heating was discussed.