On The Mechanism of Fatigue in Micron-Scale Structural Films of Polycrystalline Silicon

2-μm thick structural films of polycrystalline silicon are shown to display “metal-like” stress-life fatigue behavior in room air, with failures occurring after > 1011 cycles at stresses as low as half the fracture strength. Using in situ measurements of the specimen compliance and transmission electron microscopy to characterize such damage, the mechanism of thin-film silicon fatigue is deduced to be sequential oxidation and moisture-assisted cracking in the native SiO2 layer. This mechanism can also occur in bulk silicon but it is only relevant in thin films where the critical crack size for catastrophic failure can be exceeded within the oxide layer. The fatigue susceptibility of thin-film silicon is shown to be suppressed by alkene-based self-assembled monolayer coatings that prevent the formation of the native oxide.