Pre-standardisation of incremental FIB micro-milling for intrinsic stress evaluation at the sub-micron scale

Objective

"Intrinsic (or residual) stresses, resulting from manufacturing or processing steps, mostly define the performance and limit the lifetime of nanostructured materials, thin films, coatings and MEMS devices.
The established techniques for micron-scale measurement of residual stress still have strong limitations, e.g. in terms of spatial resolution, lack of depth sensing, their applicability on non-crystalline materials or accessibility to industry.
In this project, a European consortium is established to develop an innovative, highly reproducible and automated measurement protocol for the analysis of residual stress on a sub-micron scale, based on incremental focused ion beam (FIB) milling, along with high-resolution in situ Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) imaging and full field strain analysis by digital image correlation (DIC).
The activities will focus on the implementation and pre-standardisation of automated FIB-SEM, DIC and inverse stress calculation procedures, under official project liaisons with both CEN and VAMAS, together with the analysis and modelling of FIB induced artefacts and stress-structure-properties relationship for the selected materials and devices.
The final aim of the project will be the development of innovative design rules, implemented into simulation and optimization tools under coordination of industry partners, for the production of residual stress-controlled nanostructured materials, with specific focus on (i) multi-layered nano-coatings, (ii) micro/nano-crystalline and amorphous materials, (iii) MEMS and 3D metal interconnects.
The project is expected to realize a breakthrough in measurement, standardization and modelling ability of the residual stress distribution at the sub-micron scale.
The measurement techniques and the simulation tools will provide SMEs in particular with enabling technologies for the design and efficient production of innovative micro-devices with improved performance and substantially reduce development costs."

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.

• social sciences media and communications graphic design
• natural sciences physical sciences optics microscopy electron microscopy
• engineering and technology materials engineering coating and films
• engineering and technology nanotechnology nano-materials
• natural sciences computer and information sciences software software applications simulation software

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

• FP7-NMP - Specific Programme "Cooperation": Nanosciences, Nanotechnologies, Materials and new Production Technologies

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

• NMP.2013.1.4-2 - Metrology research for the development and validation of design rules for engineering of nanostructured and nano-enabled materials and devices

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

FP7-NMP-2013-LARGE-7
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

CP-IP - Large-scale integrating project

Coordinator

Participants (13)