Introduction Historically, the mechanical performances of multilayered thin-fi lm metal stacks have been diffi cult to characterize for failure by any means. Recent developments in nanoscratch techniques, though, have made great headway in the examination of fi lm failure of these multilayered fi lm stacks. Scratch testing has commonly been used for characterizing the adhesion of single fi lms to the substrate materials. Now, with the ability to survey the surface before and after the scratch test, the scratch process can be used to evaluate the type of failure occurring at different interfaces throughout multilayered fi lm stacks. In this study, eight fi lm stacks were tested to examine failure in individual layers of the samples. All of the samples had between three and four metal layers ranging in thickness from 100nm to 500nm. These samples were labeled as “Good” or “Bad” by the manufacturer. All of the samples were characterized using a ramp-load scratch test. The ramp-load scratch test was used for determination of the Critical Load for each layer in the fi lm stack samples. Results from the scratch tests were used to defi ne the difference in the scratch response between “Good” and “Bad” samples.