Electrowetting and reliability : investigation of dielectric materials and hydrophobic thin films ; Electromouillage et fiabilité : investigation de matériaux diélectriques et de couches minces hydrophobes

In order to increase the technologies reliability using electrowetting, this work aims to study the mechanisms of ageing on dielectric and hydrophobic materials used in electrowetting as well and to apply this study to new materials. This thesis is composed of three parts.First, to be able to characterize precisely the hydrophobic properties of these surfaces and especially their surface polarity, we established a method to measure the surface polarity based on wettability of two liquids on a surface permitting a better precision with less measurements. In a second part, we studied different films used in electrowetting before and after ageing around 90°C for one week in order to simulate a long term ageing at an ambient temperature. Widely used hydrophobic coating used in optical systems and lab-on-chip will be mainly characterized such as Fluoropel©, Cytop© and parylène C. This work shows the visible alteration of material performances in a reproducible way. Wetting hysteresis and natural contact angle with the cohesive properties of the coatings are studied in order to establish critical parameters for the life time.Finally, we tried to establish a method to deposit a hydrophobic metal oxide coating by two ways, sol-gel technic with dip-coating deposition and by PVD. A precursor sol made of the metal usable to deposit its oxide thin films has been elaborated. The solution is prepared from the synthesized precursor and stabilized by chelatant (acetylacetone). The solution stability as well as the deposition method used are presented and the annealed coatings deposited by sol-gel and PVD are characterized by XRD and morphologically (SEM, optic microscope …). By the sol-gel method, covering coatings of about 300nm have been made. However, because of the roughness, no electrowetting experiments could have been achieved. By PVD, we have deposited coatings of 400nm thickness, very smooth and usable in electrowetting. These coatings give very good results in electrowetting on plane substrates and liquid lenses ...