Mechanical durability of screen-printed flexible silver traces for wearable devices

There is increased usage of flexible electronics recently in various applications such as wearable devices, displays and sensors. Studies on the durability conductive metal traces under cyclic mechanical loading crucial since these conductors will be subjected to repeated bending. In this work, electrical behavior silver printed was tested using three-point bend test. The samples were polymer thick film (PTF) (Ag) ink a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate. PTF Ag ink, which has hyper-elastic binder flakes, studied by performing bending tests. Four-point resistivity measurements imaging sample both before after performed. A custom tester machine used apply strain circuit measure trace. results test show that trace does not undergo significant deformation change resistance less than 0.6% tensile compressive Fatigue tests also performed for three trials batches 10,000 cycles completed. wire withstood 30,000 produced only 2.64% resistance. This indicates wires are very durable even outer Imaging conducted study effect morphology Although there an increase surface roughness bending, no obvious or delamination observed samples.