Stretchable electronic devices enable numerous futuristic applications. Typically, these devices consist of a (metal) interconnect system embedded in a stretchable (rubber) matrix. This invokes an apparent stretchability conflict between the interconnect system and the matrix. This conflict is addressed by shaping the interconnects in mechanistic patterns that bend and twist to facilitate global stretchability. Metal-rubber type stretchable electronic systems exhibit catastrophic interface delamination, which is investigated in this research. The fibrillation process occurring at the delamination front of the metal-rubber interface is investigated through in-situ SEM imaging of the progressing delamination front of peel tests of rubber on copper samples. Results show that the interface strength is dependent on the delamination rate and the interface roughness. Additionally, the fibril geometry seems highly dependent on the interface roughness, while being remarkably independent on the delamination-rate.
Metal-elastomer interfacial systems, often encountered in stretchable electronics, demonstrate remarkably high interface fracture toughness values. Evidently, a large gap exists between the rather small adhesion energy levels at the microscopic scale (‘intrinsic adhesion’) and the large measured macroscopic work-of-separation. This energy gap is closed here by unravelling the underlying dissipative mechanisms through a systematic numerical/experimental multi-scale approach. This self-containing contribution collects and reviews previously published results and addresses the remaining open questions by providing new and independent results obtained from an alternative experimental set-up. In particular, the experimental studies on Cu-PDMS (Poly(dimethylsiloxane)) samples conclusively reveal the essential role of fibrillation mechanisms at the micro-meter scale during the metal-elastomer delamination process. The micro-scale numerical analyses on single and multiple fibrils show that the dynamic release of the stored elastic energy by multiple fibril fracture, including the interaction with the adjacent deforming bulk PDMS and its highly nonlinear behaviour, provide a mechanistic understanding of the high work-of-separation. An experimentally validated quantitative relation between the macroscopic work-of-separation and peel front height is established from the simulation results. Finally, it is shown that a micro-mechanically motivated shape of the traction-separation law in cohesive zone models is essential to describe the delamination process in fibrillating metal-elastomer systems in a physically meaningful way.
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