With more than 10 years of developments in mechanical characterization, people from Michalex are continuously trying to leverage this experience to improve indentation capabilities.Through continuous discussions with customers, it became clear than there is a strong need to asssociate mechanical properties and imaging information.
As a result, the companies DME and Michalex have designed the integration of standard powerfull atomic force microscopes ( AFM) in existing nanoindenters.
The goal of this design is to allow nanoindentation user's to generate a high quality image of an indent just after the test.
Minimizing the generation time of the image is critical since the material can present time dependent deformation properties.
Using a real AFM with the best adapted cantilever avoid compromizes between indentation and image and associates two complementary techniques in the same instrument.
In other words, we can obtain the best performances on the two different techniques in the same instrument
This exemple shows a Si indent image obtained just after the test with a 95-200 DME model. We can clearly see the sliding stripes corresponding of the cristallographic orientation of the material.The stripes orientation is verified by the modelisation.
Characteristics |
Advantages |
AFM software in the same PC than the nanoindenter |
reduce cost and ease of use |
integrated in the main indentation frame |
reduce the delay between indentation and image |
large image scanning area, 50x50 or 200x200 microns |
always find the indent without moving the xy tables |
possibility to perform electrical measurement |
add new capabilities in the same instrument |
same xy tables for the AFM and the nanoindenter |
unique positionning references in the instrument |
complete automatic test |
no need to be an AFM expert to generate high quality images |
Michalex
