Abstract
An effective method of evaluation for the fatigue behavior was applied to silicon and polysilicon thin film specimens to survey if silicon is susceptible to fatigue also in N_2 gas environment. It was estimated that the polysilicon specimens have an average lifetime of about 45 years when loaded at room temperature at a frequency of 100 Hz with a stress level equal to 75% of the scale parameter of initial strength distribution. Since the estimated lifetime became significantly shorter with a higher temperature, it was speculated that accumulation of intrinsic defects such as dislocations under repeated stress may also cause fatigue degradation in silicon materials.
