Introduction. Bond strength between dissimilar materials is the most important characteristic of laminated composites, which determines the success of its development for industrial use. In order to develop the theory of joining materials by plastic deformation, it is proposed to perform computer simulation of joint deformation of representative volumes of dissimilar materials on a microscale and compare the parameters of the stress-strain state with the previously presented theoretical mechanism. The aim of this work is to analyze the stress-strain state of dissimilar materials under plastic deformation on a microscale and to establish the location of the onset of fracture of surface oxide films. To achieve this aim, the following tasks of the work are formulated: 1) to study the surface profiles of dissimilar materials to be bonded by plastic deformation; 2) to simulate by the finite element method (FE) the plastic deformation of contact surfaces of dissimilar materials on a microscale; 3) to study the stages of joint deformation of dissimilar materials on a microscale and verify of the theoretical mechanism. Research methodology. The study of three-dimensional topography and roughness was carried out on a Veeco Wyko NT1100 Optical Profiling System. Deform-3D FE simulation package was chosen as the main research tool. Aluminum alloys AMg3 and D16 were chosen as the materials under study. Results and discussion. In this work, computer FE simulating of the joint deformation of the surface layers of AMg3 and D16 alloys on a microscale was performed, an analysis of the surface profiles of materials after various types of processing was carried out, the parameters of the stress-strain state were studied and compared with the parameters of the theoretical mechanism. Based on the results of the comparison, the adequacy of the proposed theoretical mechanism was assessed, and the practical difficulties of theoretical simulation of the joint deformation of dissimilar materials on the microscale were noted. Microscale FE simulation made it possible to study the flow of plastic deformation in the near-surface layers of materials, as well as to identify areas of the most probable fracture of surface oxide films and, consequently, areas of primary bonding of dissimilar materials.