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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 January 2011
This paper presents a combined experimental and theoretical/computational study of adhesion and interfacial fracture between multilayers in a CYPHER® model drug eluting stents (DES). Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) is used to obtain pull-off forces between coated AFM tips and substrates that simulate the bimaterial surfaces in the DES. Adhesion theories and fracture mechanics concepts are then applied to obtain estimates of the fracture toughness over a range of mode mixities between pure mode I and pure mode II. The trends in the estimates are shown to be in good agreement with experimental measurements of interfacial fracture toughness obtained from Brazil disk specimens over the same range of mode mixities.