from the conferences organized by TANGER Ltd.
Nanoindentation instruments are commonly used to study hardness, elastic modulus and other related mechanical properties at the nanoscale. They are a popular tool for the study and design of thin film systems, nanocomposites and other nanostructured materials and devices. Metrological issues such as uncertainty analysis and traceability are often treated only briefly. In many cases only the statistical variability is taken into account although the uncertainties of the method itself are in the range of percent.It is well known that the correct determination of the area function of the indenter plays a crucial role. However, this can also be a difficult step in the traceability measurement chain.The probably simplest and most widely used calibration procedure for area function is by measuring a well-characterized reference sample. We analyze the uncertainties related to this procedure and compare the impact of different sources of uncertainties, such as quality of reference sample, data acquisition, data processing and choice of fitting procedure. The uncertainty analysis is performed using NIGET, an open-source software for general nanoindentation data processing.
Keywords: nanoindentation, uncertainty analysis, area© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.