Characterization of a Flexible Device using a 3-Point Rolling Test

Mechanical reliability is the one of the critical aspect of flexible or foldable electronic devices. As new flexible components emerge, new paradigms for mechanical testing and simulations will be required. Standardized characterization test methods such as the 3-point bend test only account for small displacements and large radius of curvature and might not be applicable to foldable device as is. In this paper we propose a 3-point rolling test setup that can be used to achieve a range of radius of curvature. Additioanlly we evaluate the strain response of the device using an equivalent simulation model. We further evaluate the effect of different design parameters like layer thickness and modulus on the reliability of the device using a Taguchi design of experiments.