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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 February 2011
Time dependent deformation of polymers must be considered in studies of deformation and fracture of polymer electronic packaging materials. In composites in which fabrication stresses are stored, the rate of plastic relaxation influences the long term mechanical stability. The practical need to predict mechanical performance of these materials from simple mechanical tests is the motivating factor in attempting to relate fundamental mechanisms of deformation to the stress relaxation behaviour. A review of some approaches based on activated rate processes and their application to some preliminary experiments onpolyimide is reported.