  A new technique was developed for studying the mechanical behavior of
nano-scale thin metal films on substrate is presented. The test structure was
designed on a novel "paddle" cantilever beam specimens with dimensions as few
hundred nanometers to less than 10 nanometers. This beam is in triangle shape
in order to provide uniform plane strain distribution. Standard clean room
processing was used to prepare the paddle sample. The experiment can be
operated by using the electrostatic deflection on the paddle uniform
distributed stress cantilever beam and then measure the deposited thin metal
film materials on top of it. A capacitance technique was used to measurement on
the other side of the deflected plate to measure its deflection with respect to
the force. The measured strain was converted through the capacitance
measurement for the deflection of the cantilever. System performance on the
residual stress measurement of thin films are calculated with three different
forces on the "paddle" cantilever beam, including the force due to the film,
compliance force and electrostatic force.

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