A foldable smartphone is an exciting new approach for future mobile systems. With some early models being introduced to the market, research and development is being performed to increase the reliability of future systems. Mechanical failure of the display is the major source of foldable smartphone’s reliability issues. The display is a laminate structure including an organic light emitting diode (OLED) layer (emission layer and pixel electrode layer), a touch panel, a polarizer, and multiple protective layers in addition to multiple functional coatings and supporting structures. The display is exposed to repeated folding, finger touch and the impact of external sharp objects. In addition, mechanical behavior changes through the thickness of the display; which adds extra challenges in preventing damage to vital components of the display. This review covers more than 100 US patents about the mechanical failures in foldable smartphones published or filed after 2015. Different inventions reviewed are to design a foldable configuration to prevent mechanical failures resulting from the following four mechanisms: 1) plastic deformation (yielding, creep, and fatigue); 2) fracture; 3) delamination; and 4) buckling (warping, buckling, wrinkling and creasing).

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Foldable smartphones are expected to be widely commercialized in the near future. Thermal ground plane (TGP), known as vapor chamber or two-dimensional flat heat pipe, is a promising solution for the thermal management of foldable smartphones. There are two approaches to designing a TGP for foldable smartphones. One approach uses two TGPs connected by a graphite bridge and the other approach uses a single, large, and foldable TGP. In this study, different thermal management solutions are simulated for a representative foldable smartphone with screen dimensions of 144 × 138.3 mm2 (twice the screen of iPhone 6 s with a 10 mm gap). In addition, the simulation includes two heat sources representing a main processor with dimensions of 14.45 × 14.41 mm2 and power of 3.3 W (A9 processor in iPhone 6S) and a broadband processor with dimensions of 8.26 × 9.02 mm2 and power of 2.5 W (Qualcomm broadband processor). For the simulation, a finite element method (FEM) model is calibrated and verified by steady-state experiments of two different TGPs. The calibrated model is then used to study three different cases: a graphite heat spreader, two TGPs with a graphite hinge, and a single, large, and foldable TGP. In the fully unfolded configuration, using a graphite heat spreader, the temperature difference across the spreader's surface is about 17 °C. For the design using two TGPs connected by a graphite bridge, the temperature difference is about 7.2 °C. Finally, for the design using a single large TGP with a joint region, the temperature difference is only 1–2 °C. These results suggest that a single foldable TGP or a configuration with two TGPs outperform the graphite sheet solution for the thermal management of foldable smartphones.