Mechanical failure analysis of thin film transistor devices on steel and polyimide substrates for flexible display applications

The crack onset strain (COS) of 4-level thin film transistor (TFT) devices on both steel foils and thin polyimide (PI) films was investigated using tensile experiments carried out in situ in an optical microscope. Cracks initiated first within the SiO2 insulator layer for both types of substrates. The COS was found to be equal to 1.15% and 0.24% for steel and PI, respectively. The influence of loading direction on failure of the TFT stack with anisotropic geometry was moreover found to be considerable, leading to recommendations for backplane design. The large difference in critical strain of the SiO2 layer on the two substrates was analyzed using an energy release rate approach, and found to result from differences in layer/substrate mechanical contrast and in internal stress state. Based on this analysis a correlation between layer/substrate elastic contrast and tensile failure behavior was devised. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Variable stars towards the bulge of M31: the AGAPE catalogue

We present the AGAPE astrometric and photometric catalogue of 1579 variable stars in a 14'x10' field centred on M31. This work is the first survey devoted to variable stars in the bulge of M31. The R magnitudes of the objects and the B-R colours suggest that our sample is dominated by red long-period variable stars (LPV), with a possible overlap with Cepheid-like type II stars. Twelve nova candidates are identified. Correlations with other catalogues suggest that 2 novae could be recurrent novae and provide possible optical counterparts for 2 supersoft X-ray sources candidates observed with Chandra.Comment: 11 pages, Latex, accepted for publication in A&

Mechanics of thin films on polymer substrates produced by roll-to-roll manufacturing

International audienc

Mechanics of thin films on polymer substrates produced by roll-to-roll manufacturing

International audienc