New coating technology unveiled at CES 2024: allows devices such as Raspberry Pi to run completely immersed in water

During CES 2024, HZO demonstrated a new water vapor coating technology that allows computers to run completely immersed in water.

HZO is a North Carolina-based company focused on developing thin-film coatings for electronic devices.

At CES 2024, HZO demonstrated a Raspberry Pi 4 single-board computer that was completely immersed in water and could function normally.

HZO said the main innovation of this coating is the use of xylene, which forms a thin film at the "molecular level" through a vacuum deposition process, meaning it can be covered more thinly and evenly on the surface of electronic devices such as bare circuit boards.

HZO says the key to the technology lies in the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process, which first heats a precursor material until it turns into a gas, and then further heats the gas to form reactive monomers. In a constant temperature deposition chamber at "near room temperature," these monomers are deposited on everything in the chamber.

HZO means that active monomers are linked to form a polymer coating, which is generally between 2 and 25 microns thick. Since it can work at room temperature, it can be used in various electronic components.

HZO stressed that the parylene coating is “highly reliable” and does not release harmful chemical byproducts during the polymerization process.

The CVD process has a wide range of applications, including automotive electronics and sensors, smart home devices, consumer electronics, biosensors, etc.