Mechanical Properties of Silicon-Based Membrane Windows Applied for a Miniature Electron Beam Radiation System

This paper presents the mechanical properties of silicon-based membranes windows applied for miniature electron beam radiation system. The membranes were used for the physical separation between the vacuum and atmosphere, and used as an EB-permeable membrane window. We used MEMS technologies to fabricate the thin Si-based membrane window structure. The size of each window is 6 mm in length and 2 mm in width. Four different types of membrane windows were fabricated to compare the mechanical properties. Residential stress, Young´s modulus, and breakage pressure were evaluated by using bulge test technique. SiN/SiO₂/Si membrane showed the highest breakage pressure and operated more than one thousand hours.