The electrical characteristics of hydrogenated amorphous silicon thin film transistors (a Si H TFTs) fabricated on stainless steel foil substrates with uniaxial outward bending were investigated at low temperatures Temperatures ranging from 77 K to 300 K were applied with experimental results showing the degradation of on-state current and threshold voltage at low temperatures Compared with the flat situation the mobility of tensile strained a Si H TFTs decreased at temperatures above 150 K but remained almost the same at temperatures below 150 K This is because outward bending will induce increase of band tail states affecting the transport mechanism differently at different temperatures (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved