Thin inorganic barrier films deposited on plastics are essential to provide protection from moisture- and oxygen-aided degradation while maintaining a flexible substrate. Mechanical bending of the barrier films, causes stress-induced cracks that may lead to significant reduction or loss of barrier protection. In-situ characterization of film cracking on the nanoscale, transparent, and conformal atomic-layer-deposited (ALD) thin films is challenging especially when these films are in a buried layer structure. We developed a technique that can inspect in real-time the cracking of the stressed barrier films using laser scanning confocal microscopy. The in-situ inspection avoids the inaccurate measurement of the crack onset strain associated with the crack "close-up" phenomenon. SU8 cover-coat is applied to form a buried ALD layer structure and in-situ inspection demonstrates the cracking of the ALD film in real-time underneath the cover-coat. This technique is nondestructive, versatile, and allows rapid and large-area inspection of different types of barrier films. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.