INTERACTION FORCES DURING THE SLIDING OF

A WATER DROPLET ON A TEXTURED SURFACE

Nguyen Thanh-Vinh, Hidetoshi Takahashi, Kiyoshi Matsumoto, and Isao Shimoyama
The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, JAPAN

ABSTRACT
We have directly measured the interaction forces (in
normal and lateral directions) during the sliding of a water
droplet on a surface decorated with a micropillar array. The
measurement was carried out using a MEMS-based two-axis
force sensor array. The advantages of our sensor array were
the high sensitivity and miniaturized size of the ultrathin
cross-shaped piezo-resistive silicon structure fabricated
under a micropillar to detect both the normal and lateral
forces acting on the micropillar. A demonstrating
measurement using a water droplet with volume of 18 μL
sliding on the micropillar array was carried out. The
measurement results showed a fluctuation in the interaction
forces when the micropillar was close to the trailing edge or Figure 1: Conceptual sketch of this study. The interaction
leading edge of the droplet. Meanwhile, in the inner region of forces in normal and lateral directions between a water
the contact line, both the normal and lateral interaction forces droplet and a micropillar during sliding were directly
were relatively stable. These results indicate that the measured by a MEMS two-axis force sensor array.
interaction forces at the edges of the droplet are important
factors controlling the sliding motion of the droplet.

INTRODUCTION
A smooth surface can only achieve a hydrophobicity
with the contact angle less than 130°. However, it is known
as lotus effect that a textured hydrophobic surface (a surface
with microstructures coated with hydrophobic material) can
exhibit the superhydrophobicity with the contact angle up to
175° [1-5]. This superior water-repellent property due to the
surface roughness can be found in many biological surfaces,
as well as artificial surfaces achieved by microfabrication
techniques [1-4]. Many promising applications of these
superhydrophobic surfaces include self-cleaning, anti-frog
and friction drag reduction in microfluidic system. To design
an optimized hydrophobic surface for these applications, it is
important to understand the sliding mechanism of a water
droplet on such surfaces with microstructures. In the case of
the droplet sliding on a textured surface, the interaction
between the droplet and each microstructure is the major
factor controlling the sliding behavior of the droplet.
Therefore, understanding this liquid-solid interaction
Figure 2: Design and sensing principle of a sensor. The
becomes important to reveal the sliding mechanism of the
normal and lateral force are detected from the resistance
droplet.
changes of two piezoresistors.
In previous researches, the sliding mechanism of
droplets on a textured surface was studied using optical
which can describe exactly the forces acting on each
observations [6-9], or theoretical or numerical analysis
microstructure during sliding. One of the reason is that both
[8-12]. By optical observations, contact behavior at the
slipping and rolling, which have different corresponding
leading and trailing edges of the droplet and internal flow of a
mechanical models, can coexist in the sliding of the droplet.
droplet can be studied. However, the interaction of the
In this paper, using a MEMS-based two axis force sensor
droplet and the textured surface inside the contact area,
array, we have carried out the direct measurement of the
which significantly controls the sliding motion of the droplet,
interaction forces between a droplet and a micropillar array
is not observable by this method. On the other hand, it is
during the sliding. The normal and lateral forces acting on a
generally difficult to provide a detailed theoretical model

978-1-4799-3509-3/14/$31.00 ©2014 IEEE 979 MEMS 2014, San Francisco, CA, USA, January 26 - 30, 2014

Figure 3: Fabrication process of the sensor array.
single micropillar are measured by an ultrathin piezoresistive
silicon structure fabricated underneath (Figure 1). The
design, fabrication and calibration of our sensor array are
first introduced. Then a demonstration experiment on the
sliding of a water droplet (volume: 18μL) is described.
DESIGN AND FABRICATION
The design of a sensor is shown in Figure 2. The sensor
consists of a 300nm-thick silicon cross-shaped structure and
a KMPR1035 micropillar at the center. The normal and
lateral force acting on the micropillar are detected by two
piezo-resistors formed the roots of two beams in the
structure. In our design, seven sensors were arrayed on a line
with a pitch of 375μm. The size and pitch of micropillar array
were 35μm × 35μm × 35μm and 75μm, respectively.
In the fabrication process is shown in Figure 3. First, the
device layer of an SOI (Silicon On Insulator, 0.3/0.4/300μm)
wafer was doped using ion implantation (As, dose: 1015/cm2,
10 keV for 585 sec and 40 keV for 303 sec). Then an Au/Cr
layer (30nm/3nm) was deposited via evaporation in vacuum.
In the next step, the Au/Cr was patterned and the top layer
was etched by Inductive Coupled Plasma-RIE (ICP-RIE) to
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Figure 4: Photographs of the fabricated device.
form the cross-shape structure. After that, the Au/Cr layer
was patterned again to reveal the piezoresistors. To fabricate
the micropillar array, a 35μm-thick KMPR1035 photoresist
was spincoated (3000 rpm for 60s) and patterned on the
device layer of the wafer. Next, the handle Si layer was
patterned and etched. Finally, the glass layer underneath the
cross-shaped structure was removed by HF vapor etching.
Moreover, a thin layer of C4F8 was deposited on the
micropillar array as a hydrophobic treatment.
The fabricated device are shown in Figure 4. The total
sizes of the device and micropillar array were 10mm × 6mm
and 10mm × 5mm, respectively. The area which is not
covered by micropillars was used as electrodes to connect the
sensor with an outer printed board using wire-bonding.
SENSOR CALIBRATION
Since our sensor has a high flexibility due to the ultrathin
silicon structure, it is difficult to calibrate the sensor using
commercial load cells. To obtain the sensitivities of the
fabricated sensor regarding to normal and lateral force, both
simulation and experimental results were used. We defined
the sensitivities of our sensor in response to normal and
lateral force kP and kS as shown in Figure 2. First, a
simulation on the deformation of the cross-shaped structure
under normal and lateral forces (both 100 Pa) was conducted
(Figure 5 (a)). The material properties of silicon and
KMPR1035 used in the simulation are shown in Table 1. The
tetrahedral type elements were used for meshing and the
number of elements was 299871. We define the normal and
lateral forces in this study as the values on a unit area of the
micropillar surface. From the simulation results, the spring
constant of the sensor in response to normal force applied on
the micropillar was obtained to be 8.0 (N/m). Besides, the
relationship between resistance changes of two piezoresistors
of the sensor and the vertical displacement of the middle
micropillar was obtained from the experiment shown in
Figure 5 (b). Based on these results, the sensitivity of the
sensor in response to a normal force kP can be calculated to
be 2.9×10-6 (Pa-1).
Moreover, also based on the simulation results, the ratio
kS/kP was obtained to be 0.8. Therefore, the sensitivity in
Table 1: Properties of materials used in the simulation.
Material Silicon KMPR1035
properties (Cross-shaped (Micropillar)
structure)
Density 2329 (kg/m3) 1200 (kg/m3)
Young’s modulus 170 (GPa) 2 (GPa)
Poisson ratio 0.28 0.22
Figure 5: (a) Simulation results showing the deformation and
strain of the sensor under normal and lateral load. (b) The
relationship between vertical displacement of the pillar and
the resistance changes of two piezoresistors.
response to a lateral force was calculated to be 2.3×10-6
(Pa-1).
EXPERIMENT AND RESULTS
Experimental setup
The experimental setup to measure the interaction force
of a sliding droplet on the fabricated micropillar array is
shown in Figure 6. The sensor array was attached to a
rotational stage, by which the angle of the sensor array to
direction of gravity can be controlled. At the beginning, a
water droplet with the volume of approximately 18 μL was
placed on the micropillar array while it is adjusted to
horizontal angle. Then the stage was rotated manually to let
the droplet slide through the sensor array. The sliding motion
of the droplet was captured using a high speed camera
(PHOTRON, FASTCAM 1024 PCI) at 1000 fps while the
outputs of sensor array were measured by a multi-channel
oscilloscope (ScopeCorder DL850, Yokogawa Inc.) after
amplified by 1000 times. The images of the high speed
camera and outputs of the sensor array was synchronized by
an LED used as an indicator.
Experimental results
As the micropillar array was rotated, the water droplet
started to slide down. The angle of the micropillar array to
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Figure 6: (a) Experimental setup. (b) An image of the high
speed camera showing the initial position of the water
droplet placed near the left edge of the micropillar array.
Figure 7: Sliding velocity of the droplet calculated from the
images of the high speed camera showing that the droplet
sliding with a constant acceleration.
horizontal direction when the droplet slid through the sensor
array was approximately 18°. Figure 7 shows the sliding
velocity of the droplet calculated from the images of the high
speed camera. The sliding velocity increased linearly with
time, which means that the droplet was sliding with a
constant acceleration.
The image sequence of droplet sliding motion and the
interaction forces between the droplet and micropillars of the
sensor array are shown in Figure 8 (a). The positive direction
of normal and lateral forces were defined to be the same with
that of z- and x-axis, respectively. The plot-markers in each
graph indicate the moment when the center of contact line
crossed each sensor. The results suggested that the contact
mechanism of a micropillar and the droplet can be described
in three steps as followed (Figure 8(b)). First, when the
droplet was approaching a micropillar, a capillary bridge
between that micropillar and the previous micropillar was
formed and the pillar was pulled backward, resulting in the

Figure 8: (a) Snapshots of the high speed camera showing
the sliding of the droplet and the interaction forces between
the droplet and the micropillar of each sensor. (b) The
contact mechanism between the droplet and the micropillar
array during sliding.
negative lateral force. In the second step, as the droplet
continued sliding forward, the normal and lateral forces
became stable. In the detachment step, first, both normal and
lateral forces decreased. However, interestingly, our results
showed that right before the detachment of the droplet from a
micropillar, the normal force at that pillar increased. The
reason is thought to be the rupture of the capillary bridge at
the rear of the micropillar and the mass of that capillary
bridge jumped forward causing more normal force on the
micropillar.
CONCLUSIONS
In conclusions, we have directly measured the
interaction forces in normal and lateral direction between a
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water droplet and the array of micropillar during sliding. The
results showed that there were fluctuations in the interaction
forces when a pillar contacted with the leading edge or
trailing edge of the droplet. When the droplet started
contacting that pillar, surface tension could cause the pillar to
be pulled backward. On the other hand, before detachment of
the droplet’s trailing edge from a pillar, we observed a
recovery of the normal force which is thought to be caused by
the jumping of the capillary bridge from the previous pillar.
Our results indicated that the interaction forces at the edges
of the droplet are important factors which control the sliding
motion of the droplet.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The photolithography masks were made using the
University of Tokyo VLSI Design and Education Center
(VDEC)’s 8 inch EB writer F5112 + VD01 donated by
ADVANTEST Corporation. This work was supported by
JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers 25000010, 23310089,
24656162 and NSK Foundation for Advancement of
Mechatronics.
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CONTACT
*Nguyen Thanh-Vinh,
Tel: +81-3-5841-6318; vinh@leopard.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp