Reliability of metal films on flexible polymer substrate during cyclic bending deformations

Recently, the technology for flexible electronics such as flexible smart phone, foldable displays, and bendable battery is under active development. With approaching the real commercialization of flexible electronics, the electrical and mechanical reliability of flexible electronics have become significantly important because they will be used under various mechanical deformations such as bending, twisting, stretching, and so on. These mechanical deformations result in performance degradation of electronic devices due to several mechanical problems such as cracking, delamination, and fatigue. Therefore, the understanding of relationship between mechanical loading and electrical performance is one of the most critical issues in flexible electronics for expecting the lifetime of products. Here, we have investigated the effect of monotonic tensile and cyclic deformations on metal interconnect to provide a guideline for improving the reliability of flexible interconnect.