A Novel Two-Axis Load Sensor Designed for in Situ Scratch Testing inside Scanning Electron Microscopes

Because of a lack of available miniaturized multiaxial load sensors to measure the normal load and the lateral load simultaneously, quantitative in situ scratch devices inside scanning electron microscopes and the transmission electron microscopes have barely been developed up to now. A novel two-axis load sensor was designed in this paper. With an I-shaped structure, the sensor has the function of measuring the lateral load and the normal load simultaneously, and at the same time it has compact dimensions. Finite element simulations were carried out to evaluate stiffness and modal characteristics. A decoupling algorithm was proposed to resolve the cross-coupling between the two-axis loads. Natural frequency of the sensor was tested. Linearity and decoupling parameters were obtained from the calibration experiments, which indicate that the sensor has good linearity and the cross-coupling between the two axes is not strong. Via the decoupling algorithm and the corresponding decoupling parameters, simultaneous measurement of the lateral load and the normal load can be realized via the developed two-axis load sensor. Preliminary applications of the load sensor for scratch testing indicate that the load sensor can work well during the scratch testing. Taking advantage of the compact structure, it has the potential ability for applications in quantitative in situ scratch testing inside SEMs.