Strain Measurement of Microsamples Using Laser Interferometry

As the specimen gets smaller and thinner, traditional strain measurement method using the strain gage is impossible. In this paper, the strain is measured using non-contact laser interferometry method. Two markers are placed on the LIGA specimens along the loading direction to reflect the laser beams to generate the interferometric fringe patterns. The markers are generated using micro-hardness indentation for the LIGA specimens. A pair of CCD cameras is used to capture the interferometric fringes during each step of the loading along the longitudinal direction. Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is then applied to calculate the frequency and phase shift of the fringes. The displacement and strain can be obtained from the phase shift of the fringe pattern. This ISDG strain measurement technique is further developed by using multi markers to obtain fringes during the whole loading when the specimen undergoes larger motion. Biaxial strain measurement using ISDG is also developed to obtain both Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio simultaneously. A third marker is located orthogonal to the first pair of markers along the loading direction. Two pairs of CCD cameras are used to acquire the digital images of the interferometric fringes patterns along both longitudinal and transverse directions. The stress-strain curves as well as the material properties are very consistent from the different tests using ISDG.