  Properties of typical MEMS materials have been widely investigated.
Mechanical properties of MEMS structures depend not only on the bulk material
properties, but also structural factors. A measurement system has been made to
measure force/deflection on microstructures to examine some of the structural
properties. This is a stylus setup integrated with a load cell and a linear
actuator. First, the requirements for the measurement system were established.
Then the system was built up and characterized. We have successfully made
measurements on a typical micromechanical structure, a cantilever accelerometer
design. The stylus placement accuracy, the spring constant along the proof
mass, analysis of the force/deflection curve shape and destructive tests on the
cantilever have been investigated in our experiment and will be presented in
this paper.
