Superhydrophobic surfaces for electronic packaging and energy applications

Abstract

Superhydrophobic surfaces, which display water contact angles of larger than 150°, have attracted more and more attention due to their importance in both fundamental research and practical applications. This dissertation is mainly focused on the fundamental understanding and exploring applications of superhydrophobic surfaces. First, some specific examples of superhydrophobic surface fabrication were given, which include superoleophobic Si surface, robust superhydrophobic SiC surface, and reversible wettability nanocomposite films. Based on the study of superhydrophobic surfaces, the application of superhydrophobic surfaces in electronic packaging were explored. Superhydrophobic silica/epoxy nanocomposite coating serves as an encapsulant to improve the electronic device reliability. Such superhydrophobic coating showed good stability under humidity at elevated temperatures and was applied on the triple track resistors test coupons. In addition, the applications of superhydrophobic surfaces in solar cells were studied. Two multi-functional hierarchical structure solar cells with self-cleaning, low reflection and high efficiency properties were built up by coating or etching methods.