Mechanical stretch influence on lifetime of dielectric elastomer films

Film pre-stretching is a widely adopted solution to improve dielectric strength of the DEA systems. However, to date, long term reliability of this solution has not been investigated. In this work it is explored how the dielectric elastomer lifetime is affected by film pre-stretching. The dielectric loss of soft polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) films is studied for different stretch ratios by measuring tanδ. Additionally, time-to-breakdown was measured at DC electric stress for different stretch ratios. For this purpose, accelerated life test (ALT) were performed. The results obtained are compared with non-pre-stretched samples. This study suggests that no additional dielectric losses are caused by film stretching up to 80% of original dimensions.