In the present study, we design, fabricate and characterize robust hydrophobic surfaces on which four different shapes (rectangle, circle, triangle and cross) of a micropillar array are patterned. Various micropillar arrays are designed to give rise to the same Wenzel and Cassie contact angles (CAs) of the surfaces through changes in the shape and size of the micropillar and the spacing between adjacent micropillars. The designed surfaces are fabricated using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) replica molding with photolithographically manufactured SU-8 masters. The hydrophobicities of the various PDMS surfaces are evaluated through theoretical and experimental measurements of the water CAs. The theoretical and experimental CAs are strongly correlated to each other, as expected. The generalization of the suggested design rule was carried out by introducing effective parameters of square-arranged micropillar arrays. The apparent contact angle of the robust hydrophobic surface monotonically increases as the top surface area decreases for a given perimeter and height.

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In this study, we have designed and fabricated robust hydrophobic surfaces that are composed of various micropillar arrays and investigated the effect of the aspect ratio (feature height/feature size) of the micropillar on the wettability of the fabricated surfaces. The robust, micropillar-arrayed surfaces were designed to yield the same Wenzel and Cassie water contact angles (CAs). According to our design rule, one can achieve an enhanced hydrophobic surface by increasing the height of the micropillars. The designed hydrophobic surfaces were fabricated by polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) replica molding with photolithographically micropatterned SU-8 masters. The hydrophobicity properties of the fabricated PDMS surfaces were fully characterized theoretically and experimentally. From the theoretical and experimental results, it was found that the micropillars of an intrinsically hydrophobic material with a high aspect ratio enhance the hydrophobicity of the surface by increasing the surface roughness (in view of the Wenzel state) and the opportunities for the entrapment of air beneath a water droplet (the Cassie state).

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