Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 February 2011
Mechanical characterization of polymeric thin films and small volume structures is critical to device development in industrial applications ranging from low-k dielectric microelectronic packaging films to engineered and natural biological substrata. Although nanoindentation has the potential to quantify mechanical properties of polymeric systems, the established analyses developed for metals and ceramics (eg, calculation of hardness and Young's modulus) do not capture key aspects of viscoelastoplastic deformation and are therefore not quantitatively applicable. Here, we present a set of complementary, nanoscale contact-based experimental approaches that together characterize specific energy absorption as a unique mechanical characteristic of polymers, and provide examples for a set of amorphous polymers.