In this paper, silicon containing thick anode electrodes were investigated to provide a higher energy density and capacity for EV/HEV applications. In our study, a facile technique of adding a mechanical buffer between thick active material and current collector is proposed and tested by an in-situ measurement using white light interferometry. The electrodes with a modified structure deliver a significant improvement to mechanical stability as well as battery performance compared to conventional electrodes with the original structural design. Therefore, the methodology demonstrated here can probably be used to mitigate the deteriorating effect of mechanical failure in silicon-based electrodes, in which volume variation is usually considered as a severe issue, of lithium ion batteries. (c) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.