IJAM: Volume 29, No. 2 (2016)

Abstract. A global feedback control applied on thin film surface pattering induced by the electric field is studied theoretically near the threshold of instability. The growth of the interfacial disturbance between air and polymer film on the unbounded spatial domain is described by the thin film equation, a single nonlinear equation incorporating the competition between surface tension and electric force; A feedback control is applied to suppress the subcritical instability, thus stabilize the stationary patterns developed on the interface.