Tension tests, while standardized for common structural materials, are currently being developed and used for MEMS materials by a small number of researchers. This paper presents recent progress at Hopkins in four areas:Comparison of the tensile test method with different approaches; agreement is found with Young's modulus measurements from membrane tests and with fracture strengths from other tensile tests.Tension-tension fatigue; increased life with decreased applied stress is measured, yielding S-N plots similar to those of metals.Stress versus axial and lateral strain of thick-film silicon carbide; Young's modulus = 420 GPa, Poisson's ratio = 0.21, fracture strength = 0.8 GPa.Polysilicon stress-strain behavior at high temperatures; it deforms inelastically at temperatures above 750degreesC. (C) 2003 Kluwer Academic Publishers.